THE    NEGRO: 
THE    SOUTHERNER'S    PROBLEM 


THE   NEGRO: 


THE    SOUTHERNER'S    PROBLEM 


BY 


THOMAS   NELSON   PAGE 


CHARLES    SCRIBNER'S    SONS 
NEW   YORK::::::::::::::::::::i9o4 


u  \ 


COPYRIGHT,  1904,  BY 
CHARLES  SCRIBNER'S  SONS 


Published,  November,  1904 


TROW  DIRECTORY 

PRINTING   AND  BOOKBINDING   COMPANY 
NtW  YORK 


TO 

ALL   THOSE   WHO   TRULY   WISH    TO   HELP 

SOLVE  THE  RACE  PROBLEM,   THESE 

STUDIES  ARE   RESPECTFULLY 

DEDICATED 


191185 


INTRODUCTORY 

IN  this  volume  of  essays  relating  to  one  of 
the  most  vital  and  pressing  problems 
which  has  ever  confronted  a  people,  no 
pretence  is  made  that  the  subject  has  been  fully 
discussed.  All  that  is  claimed  is  that  an  attempt 
is  made,  after  years  of  study  and  of  more  or 
less  familiarity  with  some  phases  of  the  Prob 
lem,  to  present  them  plainly,  candidly  and,  as 
far  as  possible,  temperately.  It  is  not  even 
claimed  that  this  is  wholly  possible.  No  man 
can  entirely  dissociate  himself  from  the  con 
ditions  amid  which  he  grew  up,  or  free  him 
self  from  the  influences  which  surrounded  him 
in  his  youth.  The  most  he  can  do  is  to  strive 
earnestly  for  an  open  and  enlarged  mind  and 
try  to  look  at  everything  from  the  highest  and 
soundest  standpoint  he  can  reach.  If  he  does 
this  and  tries  to  tell  the  truth  absolutely  as  he 
sees  it,  though  he  may  not  have  given  the  exact 
truth,  he  will,  possibly,  have  done  his  part  to 
help  others  find  it. 

vii 


viii  INTRODUCTORY 

It  is  not  claimed  that  the  author  is  absolutely 
correct  in  all  of  his  propositions.  Sometimes 
the  information  on  which  they  are  based  is, 
possibly,  incorrect;  the  classification  of  facts  in 
complete  or  inexact;  and,  no  doubt,  his  deduc 
tions  are  occasionally  erroneous ;  but  no  proposi 
tion  has  been  advanced  for  which  he  does  not 
believe  he  has  sound  authority;  no  fact  has  been 
stated  without  what  appears  to  him  convincing 
proof,  and  whatever  error  his  deductions  con 
tain  may  readily  be  detected,  as  they  are  plainly 
stated. 

Although  it  has  appeared  at  one  time  or  an 
other  that  the  race  question  was  in  process  of 
settlement,  yet  always,  just  when  that  hope 
seemed  brightest,  it  has  been  dashed  to  the 
ground,  and  the  Question  has  reappeared  in 
some  new  form  as  menacing  as  ever.  In  fact, 
it  is  much  too  weighty  and  far-reaching  to  be 
disposed  of  in  a  short  time.  Where  ten  millions 
of  one  race,  which  increases  at  a  rate  that  dou 
bles  its  numbers  every  forty  years-,  confront 
within  the  borders  of  one  country  another  race, 
the  most  opposite  to  it  on  earth,  there  must 
exist  a  question  grave  enough  in  the  present  and 
likely  to  become  stupendous  in  the  future.  Next 
to  Representative  Government,  this  is  to-day  the 


INTRODUCTORY  ix 

most  tremendous  question  which  faces  directly 
one-third  of  the  people  of  the  United  States,  and 
only  less  immediately  all  of  them.  It  includes 
the  labor  question  of  the  South,  and  must,  in 
time,  affect  that  of  the  whole  country.  It  does 
more;  it  affects  all  those  conditions  which  make 
life  endurable  and,  perhaps,  even  possible  in  a 
dozen  States  of  the  Union.  Wherever  it  ex 
ists,  it  is  so  vital  that  it  absorbs  for  the  time 
being  all  the  energies  of  the  people,  and  ex 
cludes  due  consideration  of  every  other  question 
whatsover. 

In  dealing  with  this  Question  in  the  past, 
nearly  every  mistake  that  could  possibly  be 
made  has  been  made,  and  to-day,  after  more 
than  thirty-five  years  of  peace  and  of  material 
prosperity,  the  Question  is  apparently  as  live 
as  it  was  over  a  generation  ago,  when  national 
passion  was  allowed  to  usurp  the  province  of 
deliberation,  and  the  Negro  was  taught  two 
fundamental  errors:  first,  that  the  Southern 
white  was  inherently  his  enemy,  and,  secondly, 
that  his  race  could  be  legislated  into  equality 
with  the  white. 

One  unfortunate  fact  is  that  that  portion  of 
the  white  race  living  at  a  distance  from  the  re 
gion  where  the  Problem  is  most  vital  have  been 


x  INTRODUCTORY 

trained  to  hold  almost  universally  one  theory 
as  to  the  Question,  while  the  portion  who  face 
the  problem  every  day  of  their  lives  have  quite 
solidly  held  a  view  absolutely  the  opposite. 

A  singular  feature  of  this  difference  in  the 
views  held  by  the  two  sections  is  that  whatever 
Southerners  have  said  about  conditions  at  the 
South  relating  to  the  Negroes  has  usually  been 
received  incredulously  at  the  North,  and  it  is 
only  when  some  Northerner  has  seen  those  con 
ditions  for  himself  and  found  the  views  of  the 
Southerners  to  be  sound  that  those  views  were 
accepted.  Thus,  we  have  had  exhibited  the 
curious  fact  that  evidence  upon  a  most  vital 
matter  has  been  accepted  rather  with  reference 
to  the  sectional  status  of  the  witness  than  to  his 
opportunity  for  exact  knowledge. 

A  Southerner  may  be  a  high-minded  and  phil 
anthropic  gentleman,  whose  views  would  be 
sought  and  whose  word  would  be  taken  on 
every  other  subject;  he  may  be  carrying  his  old 
slaves  as  pensioners;  he  may  treat  the  weakest 
and  worst  of  them  with  that  mingled  considera 
tion  and  indulgence  which  is  so  commonly  to 
be  found  in  the  South;  but  if  he  expresses  the 
results  of  a  lifetime  of  knowledge  of  the  Ne 
gro's  character,  it  counts  for  nothing  with  a 


INTRODUCTORY  xi 

large  class  who  fancy  themselves  the  only 
friends  of  the  Negro. 

The  reason  for  this  has,  undoubtedly,  been 
the  belief  held  by  many  Northerners  that  the 
Southerners  were  inherently  incapable  of  doing 
justice  to  the  negroes.  Happily  for  the  proper 
solution  of  the  question,  except  with  that  por 
tion  of  the  people  who  belong  to  the  generation 
to  whom  the  Baptist  cried  in  the  wilderness,  this 
state  of  mind  is  more  or  less  passing  away,  and 
men  of  all  sections  are  awakening  to  the  need 
for  a  proper  solution. 

In  this  discussion,  one  thing  must  be  borne 
in  mind:  In  characterizing  the  Negroes  gener 
ally,  it  is  not  meant  to  include  the  respectable 
element  among  them,  except  where  this  is 
plainly  intended.  Throughout  the  South  there 
is  such  an  element,  an  element  not  only  respect 
able,  but  universally  respected.  To  say  that 
Negroes  furnish  the  great  body  of  rapists,  is 
not  to  charge  that  all  Negroes  are  ravishers. 
To  say  that  they  are  ignorant  and  lack  the  first 
element  of  morality,  is  not  to  assert  that  they 
all  are  so.  The  race  question,  however,  as  it 
exists  in  the  South,  is  caused  by  the  great  body 
of  the  race,  and  after  forty  years  in  which  money 
and  care  have  been  given  unstintedly  to  uplift 


xii  INTRODUCTORY 

them,  those  who  possess  knowledge  and  virtue 
are  not  sufficient  in  number  and  influence  to 
prevent  the  race  question  from  growing  rather 
than  diminishing. 

De  Tocqueville,  more  than  a  century  ago, 
declared  that  he  was  obliged  to  confess  that  he 
did  not  regard  the  abolition  of  slavery  as  a 
means  of  warding  off  the  struggle  of  the  two 
races  in  the  Southern  States.  Thomas  Jefferson 
pronounced  the  same  view,  and  declared  that 
they  must  be  separated.  In  the  light  of  mod 
ern  conditions,  it  would  appear  as  though,  un 
less  conditions  change,  these  views  may  be  veri 
fied.  It  may  even  be  possibly  true,  as  some 
believe,  that,  with  the  present  increase  of  the 
two  races  going  on,  whether  the  Negro  race 
be  educated  and  enlightened  or  not,  the  most 
dangerous  phases  of  the  problem  would  still 
exist  in  the  mere  continuance  together  of  the 
two  races. 

It  is  with  the  hope  of  throwing  some  light 
on  this  great  Question  that  these  studies  have 
been  made. 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

I.    SLAVERY  AND  THE  OLD  RELATION  BETWEEN 
N  THE  SOUTHERN  WHITES  AND  BLACKS  .       3 

II.    SOME  OF  ITS  DIFFICULTIES  AND  FALLACIES     29 

III.  ITS  PRESENT  CONDITION  AND  ASPECT,  AS 

SHOWN  BY  STATISTICS 56 

IV.  THE  LYNCHING  OF   NEGROES — ITS   CAUSE 

AND  ITS  PREVENTION 86 

V.    THE   PARTIAL   DISFRANCHISEMENT  OF  THE 

NEGRO 120 

VI.    THE  OLD-TIME  NEGRO 163 

VII.    THE  RACE  QUESTION 205 

VIII.    OF  THE  SOLUTION  OF  THE  QUESTION  .     .286 


THE    NEGRO: 
THE    SOUTHERNER'S    PROBLEM 


THE    NEGRO: 
THE    SOUTHERNERS    PROBLEM 

CHAPTER    I 

SLAVERY   AND   THE   OLD    RELATION    BE 
TWEEN   THE    SOUTHERN    WHITES 
AND    BLACKS 


AMONG  the  chief  problems  which  have 
vexed  the  country  for  the  last  century 
and  threaten  to  give  yet  more  trouble 
in  the  future,  is  what  is  usually  termed  "  The 
Negro  Question."  To  the  South,  it  has  been 
for  nearly  forty  years  the  chief  public  question, 
overshadowing  all  others,  and  withdrawing  her 
from  due  participation  in  the  direction  and 
benefit  of  the  National  Government.  It  has 
kept  alive  sectional  feeling;  has  inflamed  parti 
sanship;  distorted  party  policies;  barred  com 
plete  reconciliation;  cost  hundreds  of  millions 

3 


4  THE  NEGRO: 

of  money,  and  hundreds  if  not  thousands  of 
lives,  and  stands  ever  ready,  like  Banquo's 
ghost,  to  burst  forth  even  at  the  feast. 

For  the  last  few  years  it  has  appeared  to 
be  in  process  of  being  settled,  and  settled  along 
the  lines  which  the  more  conservative  element 
of  the  white  race  at  the  South  has  deemed  for 
the  permanent  good  of  both  races,  a  view  in 
which  the  best  informed  element  at  the  North 
apparently  acquiesced.  The  States  which  the 
greater  part  of  the  most  ignorant  element  of 
the  Negro  race  inhabited  had  substantially 
eliminated  this  element  from  the  participation 
in  political  government,  but  had  provided  qual 
ifications  for  suffrage  which  would  admit  to 
participation  therein  any  element  of  the  race 
sufficiently  educated  to  meet  what  might  to  an 
impartial  man  appear  a  reasonable  require 
ment.*  VMeantime,  the  whites  were  taxing 
themselves  heavily  and  were  doing  all  in  their 
power  to  give  the  entire  race  the  education 
which  would  enable  them  to  meet  this  require 
ment. 

Those  whites  who  know  the  race  best  and 
hold  the  most  far-reaching  conception  of  the 
subject  maintain  that  this  disfranchisement  was 
*  See  chapter  on  '«  The  Disfranchisement  of  the  Negro." 

S» 


THE  SOUTHERNER'S   PROBLEM          5 

necessary,  and,  even  of  the  Negro  race,  those 
who  are  wisest  and  hold  the  highest  ideal  for 
their  people  acquiesced  in  this — at  least,  to  the 
extent  of  recognizing  that  the  Negroes  at  large 
needed  a  more  substantial  foundation  for  full 
citizenship  than  they  had  yet  attained — and 
were  preaching  and  teaching  the  imperative 
necessity  of  the  race's  applying  its  chief  energies 
to  building  itself  up  industrially. 

The  South,  indeed,  after  years  of  struggle, 
considered  that  the  question  which  had  con 
fronted  it  and  largely  affected  its  policy  for 
more  than  a  third  of  a  century  was  sufficiently 
settled  for  the  whites  to  divide  once  more  on 
the  great  economic  questions  on  which  hang  the 
welfare  and  progress  of  the  people.  Suddenly, 
however,  there  has  been  a  recrudescence  of  the 
whole  question,  and  it  might  appear  to  those 
who  base  their  opinion  wholly  on  the  public 
prints  as  though  nothing  had  been  accomplished 
toward  its  definite  settlement  in  the  last  gen 
eration. 

Only  the  other  day,  the  President  extended 
a  casual  social  invitation  to  the  most  distin 
guished  educator  of  the  colored  race :  one  who 
is  possibly  esteemed  at  the  South  the  wisest  and 
sanest  man  of  color  in  the  country,  and  who 


6  THE  NEGRO: 

has,  perhaps,  done  more  than  any  other  to 
carry  out  the  ideas  that  the  Southern  well- 
wishers  of  his  race  believe  to  be  the  soundest 
and  most  promising  of  good  results.  And  the 
effect  was  so  unexpected  and  so  far-reaching 
that  it  astonished  and  perplexed  the  whole 
country.  On  the  other  hand,  this  educator, 
speaking  in  Boston  to  his  race  in  a  reasonable 
manner  on  matters  as  to  which  he  is  a  high  au 
thority,  was  insulted  by  an  element,  the  leaders 
of  which  were  not  the  ignorant  members  of  his 
race,  but  rather  the  more  enlightened — college- 
bred  men  and  editors — and  a  riot  took  place  in 
the  church  in  which  he  spoke,  in  which  red  pep 
per  and  razors  were  used  quite  as  if  the  occa 
sion  had  been  a  "  craps-game  "  in  a  Southern 
Negro  settlement.  The  riot  was  quelled  by 
the  police;  but,  had  it  been  in  a  small  town, 
murder  might  easily  have  been  done. 

In  view  of  these  facts,  it  is  apparent  that  the 
matter  is  more  complicated  than  appears  at  first 
thought,  and  must  be  dealt  with  carefully. 

One  great  trouble  is  the  different  way  in 
which  the  body  of  the  people  at  the  North  and 
at  the  South  regard  this  problem.  We  have 
presented  to  us  the  singular  fact  that  two  sec 
tions  of  the  same  race,  with  the  same  manners 


THE  SOUTHERNER'S   PROBLEM          7 

and  customs,  the  same  traits  of  character,  the 
same  history  and,  until  within  a  time  so  recent 
that  the  divergence  is  within  the  memory  of 
living  men,  the  same  historical  relation  to  the 
Negro  race,  should  regard  so  vital  a  question 
from  such  opposite  points;  the  one  esteeming 
the  question  to  be  merely  as  to  the  legal  equality 
of  the  races,  and  the  other  passionately  hold 
ing  it  to  be  a  matter  that  goes  to  the  very  foun 
dation  of  race-domination  and  race-integrity. 
What  adds  to  the  anomaly  is  the  pregnant  fact 
that  the  future  of  these  two  sections  must  here 
after  run  on  together;  their  interests  become 
ever  more  and  more  identified,  and  if  the  one 
is  right  in  holding  that  its  position  is  founded 
on  a  racial  instinct,  the  other,  in  opposing  it,  is 
fighting  against  a  position  which  it  must  eventu 
ally  assume.  Yet,  their  views  have  up  to  the 
present  been  so  divergent — they  have,  indeed, 
been  so  diametrically  opposed  to  each  other, 
that  if  one  is  right,  the  other  must  be  radically 
wrong. 

Another  difficulty  in  the  way  of  a  sound  solu 
tion  of  the  problem  is  the  blind  bigotry  of  the 
doctrinaire,  which  infects  so  many  worthy  per 
sons.  An  estimable  gentleman  from  Boston, 
of  quite  national  reputation,  observed  a  short 


8  THE  NEGRO: 

time  ago  that  it  was  singular  that  the  Southern 
ers  who  had  lived  all  their  lives  among  the 
Negroes  should  understand  them  so  little,  while 
they  of  the  North  who  knew  them  so  slightly 
should  yet  comprehend  them  so  fully.  He 
spoke  seriously  and  this  was  without  doubt  his 
sincere  belief.  This  would  be  amusing  enough 
were  it  not  productive  of  such  unhappy  conse 
quences.  It  represents  the  conviction  of  a  con 
siderable  element.  Because  they  have  been 
thrown  at  times  with  a  few  well-behaved,  self- 
respecting  Negroes,  or  have  had  in  their  employ 
well-trained  colored  servants,  they  think  they 
know  the  whole  subject  better  than  those  who, 
having  lived  all  their  life  in  touch  with  its  most 
vital  problems,  have  come  to  feel  in  every  fibre 
of  their  being  the  deep  significance  of  its  mani 
festations.  Such  a  spirit  is  the  most  depressing 
augury  that  confronts  those  who  sincerely  wish 
to  settle  the  question  on  sound  principles. 

With  a  Negro  population  which  has  in 
creased  in  the  last  forty  years  from  four  and 
a  half  millions  to  nine  millions,  of  whom  eight 
millions  inhabit  the  South  and  four  and  a  half 
millions  inhabit  the  six  Southern  Atlantic  and 
Gulf  States,  where  in  large  sections  they  out 
number  the  whites  two  and  three  to  one,  and  in 


THE  SOUTHERNER'S   PROBLEM          9 

some  parishes  ten  to  one ;  *  with  this  popula 
tion  owning  less  than  4  per  cent,  of  the 
property  and  furnishing  from  85  to  93  per 
cent,  of  the  total  number  of  criminals;  with 
the  two  races  drifting  further  and  further 
apart,  race-feeling  growing,  and  with  ravish 
ing  and  lynching  spreading  like  a  pestilence 
over  the  country,  it  is  time  that  all  sensible 
men  should  endeavor  as  far  as  possible  to  dis 
pel  preconceived  theories  and  look  at  the  sub 
ject  frankly  and  rationally .__^ 

It  must  appear  to  all  except  the  doctrinaire 
and  those  to  whose  eyes,  seared  by  the  red-hot 
passions  of  the  war  and  the  yet  more  angry 
passions  of  the  Reconstruction  period,  no  ray 
of  light  can  ever  come,  that  it  is  of  vital  im 
portance  that  a  sound  solution  of  the  problem 
should  be  reached.  It  behooves  all  who  dis 
cuss  it  to  do  so  in  the  most  dispassionate  and 
catholic  spirit  possible.  The  time  has  passed 
for  dealing  with  the  matter  either  in  a  spirit 
of  passion  or  of  cocksure  conceit.  Well-mean 
ing  theorists,  and  what  Hawthorne  termed 
"  those  steel  machines  of  the  devil's  own  make, 

*  The  Negro  population  in  1860  was,  in  the  Slave  States, 
4,215,614;  in  the  other  States  it  was  226,216,  a  total  of  4,- 
441,830.  In  1900  the  Negro  population  in  the  Southern 
States  and  the  District  of  Columbia  was  8,081,270. 


io  THE  NEGRO: 

philanthropists,"  have  with  the  best  intentions 
"  confused  counsel  "  and  made  a  mess  of  the 
matter.  And  after  nearly  forty  years,  in  which 
money,  brains,  philanthropy,  and  unceasing 
effort  have  been  poured  out  lavishly,  the  most 
that  we  have  gotten  out  of  it  is  the  experience 
that  forty  years  have  given,  and  a  sad  experi 
ence  it  is.  The  best-informed,  the  most  clear 
sighted  and  straight-thinking  men  of  the  North 
admit  sadly  that  the  experiment  of  Negro  suf 
frage,  entered  into  with  so  much  enthusiasm  and 
sustained  at  so  frightful  a  cost,  has  proved  a 
failure,  as  those  who  alone  knew  the  Negro 
when  the  experiment  was  undertaken  prophesied 
it  must,  in  the  nature  of  things,  prove.  Only 
those  who,  having  eyes,  see  not,  and  ears,  but 
will  not  hear,  still  shut  up  their  senses  and,  re 
fusing  to  take  in  the  plain  evidences  before 
them,  babble  of  outworn  measures — measures 
that  never  had  a  shred  of  economic  truth  for 
their  foundation,  and,  based  originally  upon 
passion,  have  brought  only  disaster  to  the  whites 
and  little  better  to  those  whom  they  were  in 
tended  to  uplift. 


i 


THE   SOUTHERNER'S   PROBLEM        n 

II 

principles  may  be  laid  down  to  which, 
perhaps,  all  will  assent.  First,  it  is  absolutely 
essential  that  a  correct  understanding  of  the 
question  should  be  had;  and,  secondly,  the  only 
proper  settlement  of  it  is  one  that  shall  be 
founded  on  justice  and  wisdom — a  justice  which 
shall  embrace  all  concernecLj 

It  is  important  that,  at  the  very  outset,  we 
should  start  with  proper  bearings.  Therefore, 
though  it  would  hardly  appear  necessary  to 
advert  to  the  historical  side  of  the  question,  yet 
so  much  ignorance  is  displayed  about  it  in  the 
discussion  that  goes  on,  that,  perhaps,  the  state 
ment  of  a  few  simple  historical  facts  will  serve 
to  throw  light  on  the  subject  and  start  us 
aright. 

Until  a  recent  period,  slavery  existed  as  an 
institution  almost  all  over  the  world.  Chris 
tianity,  while  it  modified  its  status,  recognized 
it,  and,  up  to  the  time  of  the  abolition  of  the 
institution,  those  who  defended  it  drew  their 
strongest  arguments  from  the  sacred  writings. 
Pious  Puritans  sent  their  ships  to  ply  along 
the  middle  passage,  and  deemed  that  they  were 
doing  God  and  man  a  service  to  transport  be- 


12  THE  NEGRO: 

nighted  savages  to  serve  an  enlightened  and 
Christian  people.  Pious  and  philanthropic 
churchmen  bought  these  slaves  as  they  might 
have  bought  any  other  chattels. 

The  abolition  of  slavery  came  about  gradu 
ally,  and  was  due  rather  to  economic  than  to 
moral  reasons.  When,  in  1790,  slavery  was 
abolished,  by  a  more  or  less  gradual  system,  in 
the  Northern  States,  it  was  chiefly  because  of 
economic  conditions.  There  were  at  that  time 
less  than  42,000  slaves  in  all  the  Northern 
States,  and  the  system  was  not  profitable  there; 
whereas  there  were  over  700,000  slaves  in  the 
Southern  States,  and  it  appeared  that  the  sys 
tem  there  was  profitable.  But  the  balance  had 
not  then  been  struck. 

Though  a  respectable  party  of  the  represen 
tatives  of  the  Southern  States  advocated  its 
abolition  at  that  time,  it  was  retained  because 
of  economic  conditions.  From  these  facts, 
which  are  elementary,  one  cannot  avoid  the  con 
clusion  that  whatever  difference  existed  in  the 
relation  of  the  races  in  various  sections  was 
due  to  economic  causes  rather  than  to  moral  or 
religious  feeling.  In  fact,  during  the  Colonial 
period,  so  far  from  slavery  having  any  moral 
aspect  to  the  great  body  of  the  people,  it  was 


THE  SOUTHERNER'S   PROBLEM        13 

generally  regarded  as  a  beneficent  institution. 
The  Quakers,  a  sect  who,  having  known  oppres 
sion  themselves,  knew  how  to  feel  for  the  op 
pressed,  and  a  small  proportion  of  the  most 
far-seeing  in  both  sections,  were  exceptions. 
Thomas  Jefferson,  for  instance,  was  as  strong 
an  advocate  of  emancipation  as  James  Otis  and 
a  much  stronger  advocate  than  John  Adams.* 

When  the  principle  that  all  men  are  created 
equal  was  enunciated  in  the  Declaration  of  In 
dependence,  a  great  majority  of  those  who 
signed  it  had  no  idea  of  embracing  within  its 
category  the  enslaved  Africans.  To  have  done 
so  would  have  been  to  stultify  themselves.  And 
whether  or  not  Thomas  Jefferson  at  heart  felt 
the  far-reaching  scope  of  his  enunciation,  he 
gave  no  evidence  of  it  at  the  time. 

The  Negro  was  discussed  and  legislated 
about  as  a  chattel  by  the  very  men  who  issued 
that  great  charter.  The  whites  had  conquered 
this  country  from  the  savage  and  the  wild,  and 
they  had  no  misgivings  about  their  rights. 

The  inclusion  of  three-fifths  of  the  Negroes 
in  the  representation  of  the  several  States  was 
stated  by  Jefferson  to  have  grown  out  of  the 

*  By  the  census  of  1781,  there  were  in  Virginia    12,866 
free  Negroes. 


14  THE  NEGRO: 

claim  made  by  Adams  and  certain  other  North 
ern  representatives  that  they  should  be  taxed 
just  as  the  whites  were  taxed,  every  slave  be 
ing  counted  for  this  purpose  just  as  every  white 
laborer  was  counted.  This  view  the  Southern 
ers  opposed  and  the  matter  was  adjusted  by  a 
compromise  which  reckoned  only  three  out  of 
every  five  slaves.*  Representation  naturally 
followed. 

It  was,  however,  impossible  that  the  spirit 
of  liberty  should  be  so  all-pervading  and  not 
in  time  be  felt  to  extend  to  all  men — even  to 
the  slaves;  but  the  growth  of  the  idea  was  slow, 
and  it  was  so  inextricably  bound  up  with  party 
questions  that  it  was  difficult  to  consider  it  on 
4^s  own  merits.  To  show  this,  it  is  only  neces 
sary  to  recall  that,  in  1832,  Virginia,  through 
her  Legislature,  came  within  one  vote  of  abol 
ishing  slavery  within  her  borders,  and  that,  in 
1835,  William  Lloyd  Garrison  was  dragged 
through  the  streets  of  Boston  by  a  mob — an 
outrage  which  he  says  was  planned  and  exe 
cuted,  not  by  the  rabble  or  workingmen,  but 
"  by  gentlemen  of  property  and  standing  from 
all  parts  of  the  city."  f 

*  See  Randolph's  "Life  of  Jefferson,"  Vol.  I,  pp.  22-24. 
f"Life  of  William  Lloyd  Garrison,"  Vol.  II,  p.  35,  and 
Liberator,  No.  5,  p.   197. 


THE  SOUTHERNER'S   PROBLEM        15 

Fugitive-slave  laws  found  their  first  exam 
ples  in  the  colonial  treaties  of  Massachusetts; 
yet  in  time  fugitive-slave  laws  and  the  attempt 
to  enforce  them  against  the  sentiment  of  com 
munities  where  slavery  had  passed  away  played 
their  part  in  fostering  a  sentiment  of  cham 
pionship  of  the  Negro  race. 

Then  came  "  Uncle  Tom's  Cabin/'  which 
was  the  nail  that,  in  the  hands  of  a  woman,  ^ 
fastened  Sisera  to  the  ground.  It  presented 
only  one  side  of  the  question  and  did  more,  Q  "V' 
perhaps,  than  any  one  thing  that  ever  occurred, 
to  precipitate  the  war.  It  aroused  and  crystal 
lized  feeling  against  the  South  throughout  the 
world.  For  the  first  time,  the  world  had  the 
imaginable  horrors  of  slavery  presented  in  a 
manner  that  appealed  alike  to  old  and  young, 
the  learned  and  the  ignorant,  the  high-born 
and  the  lowly.  It  blackened  the  fame  of  the 
Southern  people  in  the  eyes  of  the  North  and 
fixed  in  the  mind  of  the  North  a  concept 
not  only  of  the  institution  of  slavery,  but  of 
the  Southern  people,  which  lasted  for  more  than 
a  generation,  and  has  only  begun  of  late,  in  the 
light  of  a  fuller  knowledge,  to  be  dislodged.* 

*  An  illustration  of  this  may  be  found  in  T.  W.  Dwight's 
paper  on  the  Dred  Scott  case  in  Johnson's  Universal  Cyclo- 


16  THE  NEGRO: 

III 

MR.  LINCOLN  has  been  so  generally  declared 
to  be  the  emancipator  of  the  Negro  race  that  it 
is  probable  the  facts  in  all  their  significance  will 
never  be  generally  received.  )The  abolition  of 
slavery  was  no  doubt  his  desire;  but  the  preser 
vation  of  the  Union  was  his  passion.  And, 
whatever  Mr.  Lincoln  may  have  felt  on  the  sub 
ject  of  emancipation,  he  was  too  good  a  lawyer 
and  too  sound  a  statesman  to  act  with  the  incon 
siderate  haste  that  has  usually  been  accredited 
him.  It  was  rather  what  he  might  do  than 
what  he  actually  did  that  alarmed  the  South 
and  brought  about  secession.  And  the  menace 
of  destruction  of  the  Union  soon  demanded  all 
his  energies  and  forced  him  to  relegate  to  the 
background  even  the  emancipation  of  the 
slaves.* 

pedia,  where  he  refers  to  the  fact  that,  in  the  Dred  Scott  case, 
Chief  Justice  Taney's  learned  opinion,  reviewing  historically 
the  attitude  of  the  people  toward  the  African  race  at  the  time 
of  the  adoption  of  the  Constitution,  has  been  generally  taken 
as  giving  his  own  opinion.  Even  the  late  senior  Senator 
from  Massachusetts  was  recently  reported  as  quoting  this 
as  Chief  Justice  Taney's  opinion.  But  see  Tyler's  "  Life 
of  Chief  Justice  Taney." 

*  Horace  Greeley's  old  paper,  the  New  York  Tribune,  has 
recently,  in  commenting  on  a  statement  made  by  the  suc 
cessor  of  Henry  Ward  Beecher,  felt  compelled  to  declare  that 


THE  SOUTHERNER'S   PROBLEM        17 

On  the  22d  of  December,  1860,  after  South 
Carolina  had  seceded,  he  declared  that  the 
South  would  be  in  no  more  danger  of  being 
interfered  with  as  to  slavery  by  a  Republican 
administration  than  it  was  in  the  days  of  Wash 
ington.  In  his  inaugural  address  he  declared: 
"  I  have  no  more  purpose,  directly  or  indirectly, 
to  interfere  with  the  institution  of  slavery  in 
the  States  where  it  now  exists.  I  believe  I 
have  no  right  to  do  so  and  I  have  no  inclina 
tion  to  do  so."  This  declaration  he  had  already 
made  before.  Indeed,  he  expressly  declared  in 
favor  of  the  enforcement  of  the  fugitive-slave 
law. 

Congress,  in  July,  1861,  adopted  a  resolu 
tion,  which  Lincoln  signed,  declaring  that  war 
was  not  waged  for  any  "  purpose  of  overthrow 
ing  or  interfering  with  the  rights  or  established 
institutions  "  of  the  Southern  States,  "  but  to 
defend  and  maintain  the  supremacy  of  the 
Constitution  and  to  preserve  the  Union  with 
all  the  dignity,  equality,  and  rights  of  the  sev 
eral  States  unimpaired,"  etc.  As  late  as  March, 
1862,  he  declared:  "  In  my  judgment,  gradual 

the  war  was  primarily  undertaken  to  save  the  Union  and 
not  to  emancipate  slaves.  But  the  strongest  single  piece  of 
testimony  is  Lincoln's  letter  to  Horace  Greeley  of  Aug.  22, 


1 8  THE  NEGRO: 

and  not  sudden  emancipation  is  best  for  all." 
The  special  message  to  Congress  on  this  subject 
Thaddeus  Stevens  stigmatized  as  "  about  the 
most  diluted  milk-and-water  gruel  proposition 
that  has  ever  been  given  to  the  American  peo- 

( pie."  The  war  had  been  going  on  more  than 
a  year  before  a  bill  was  passed  providing  that 

«  all  "  slaves  of  persistent  rebels,  found  in  any 
place  occupied  or  commanded  by  the  forces  of 
the  Union,  should  not  be  returned  to  their  mas 
ters  (as  had  hitherto  been  done  under  the  law), 
and  they  might  be  enlisted  to  fight  for  the 
Union."  Mr.  Lincoln's  Emancipation  Procla 
mation  of  January  i,  1863,  expresses  on  its  face 
that  it  was  issued  on  "  military  necessity." 

In  fact,  this  proclamation  did  not  really 
emancipate  at  all,  for  it  applied  only  to  those 
slaves  who  were  held  in  those  States  and  "  parts 
of  States  "  then  "  in  rebellion,"  and  by  express 
exception  did  not  extend  to  Negroes  within  the 
territory  under  control  of  the  Federal  Govern 
ment. 

It  is  of  record  that,  in  some  instances,  own 
ers  near  the  Federal  lines  sent  their  servants 

1862.  Lincoln's  paramount  object,  as  he  boldly  avowed  in 
this  letter  of  August  22,  1862,  to  Horace  Greeley,  was  "to 
save  the  Union,  and  not  either  to  save  or  destroy  slavery." — 
Cong.  Globe,  2d  Session,  37th  Congress,  Pt.  II,  p.  1154. 


THE   SOUTHERNER'S   PROBLEM        19 

into  the  territory  occupied  by  the  Federal  troops 
to  evade  the  proclamation. 

A  story  is  told  of  an  officer  under  General 
Butler,  on  the  James  River,  who,  having  a  Ne 
gro  baby  left  on  his  hands  by  a  refugee  mother 
who  had  returned  to  her  home,  sent  the  child 
back  to  her.  Someone  reported  that  he  was 
sending  refugee  Negroes  back  and  the  matter 
was  investigated.  His  defence  was  that  he  had 
sent  the  baby  back  to  the  only  place  where  he 
was  free,  to  wit :  within  the  region  occupied  by 
the  rebels. 

Meantime,  there  was  much  reflection  and  no 
little  discussion  as  to  the  subject  among  the 
Southern  people.  The  loyalty  of  the  Negroes 
had  made  a  deep  impression  on  them,  and  they 
were  beginning  to  recognize  the  feeling  of  the 
European  countries  touching  slavery.* 

*  General  R.  E.  Lee  emancipated  his  servants  within 
eight  days  after  the  proclamation  was  issued.  On  the  8th 
of  January,  1863,  he  wrote  from  his  camp  that  he  had  exe 
cuted  and  returned  to  his  lawyer  a  deed  of  manumission 
which  he  had  had  prepared  by  him.  He  had  discovered 
the  omission  of  certain  names  and  had  inserted  them.  And 
he  added  that  if  any  other  names  had  been  omitted,  he  wished 
a  supplementary  deed  drawn  up  containing  all  that  had  been 
so  omitted.  "They  are  all  entitled  to  their  freedom,"  he 
writes,  "  and  I  wish  to  give  it  to  them.  Those  that  have  been 
carried  away,  I  hope,  are  free  and  happy.  I  cannot  get 
their  papers  to  them  and  they  do  not  require  them.  I  will 


20  THE  NEGRO: 

The  Thirteenth  Amendment  (abolishing 
slavery)  failed  to  pass  in  the  spring  of  1864 

i  was  not  passed  until  January  31,  1865, 
when  all  the  Republicans  and  thirteen  Demo 
crats  voted  for  it.  Slavery,  however,  was  abol 
ished  by  the  final  conquest  of  the  South  and 
the  enforced  acquiescence  of  the  Southern  peo 
ple,  who  recognized  that  the  collapse  of  the 
Confederacy  had  effected  what  legal  enact 
ments  had  not  been  able  to  accomplish.  Re 
turning  soldiers  brought  their  body-servants 
home  with  them,  and  on  arrival  informed  them 
that  they  were  free;  in  some  instances  giving 
them  the  horses  they  had  ridden,  or  dividing 
with  them  whatever  money  they  had.* 
Throughout  the  South,  the  Negroes  were  told 
by  their  owners  that  they  were  free,  in  some 
cases  receiving  regular  papers  of  manumission. 

give  them  if  they  call  for  them."  See  "  Life  of  General  R.  E. 
Lee,"  by  Fitzhugh  Lee. 

General  Henry  A.  Wise,  one  of  the  most  ultra-Democratic 
leaders  in  the  South,  states  that,  had  the  South  succeeded 
in  its  struggle,  he  had  intended  to  set  his  slaves  free  and 
canvass  Virginia  for  the  abolition  of  slavery.  See  Report 
of  Joint  Commission  on  Reconstruction,  1st  Session,  39th 
Congress,  p.  70. 

*  The  writer  recalls  vividly  one  such  case  when  his  father 
returned  from  Appomattox:  "Ralph,"  he  said,  as  he  dis 
mounted  at  his  door,  "you  are  free.  You  have  been  a  good 
servant.  Turn  the  horses  out."  Ralph  is  still  living. 


THE  SOUTHERNER'S   PROBLEM        21 


IV 

No  race  ever  behaved  better  than  the  Ne 
groes  behaved  during  the  war.  Not  only  were 
there  no  massacres  and  no  outbreaks,  but  even 
the  amount  of  defection  was  not  large.  While 
the  number  who  entered  the  Northern  Army 
was  considerable,*  it  was  not  as  great  as 
might  have  been  expected  when  all  the  facts  are 
taken  into  account.  A  respectable  number 
came  from  the  North,  while  most  of  the  others 
came  from  the  sections  of  the  South  which  had 
already  been  overrun  by  the  armies  of  the 
Union  and  where  mingled  persuasion  and  com 
pulsion  were  brought  to  bear.f  Certainly  no 
one  could  properly  blame  them  for  yielding  to 
the  arguments  used.  Their  homes  were  more 
or  less  broken  up;  organization  and  discipline 
were  relaxed,  and  the  very  means  of  subsistence 
had  become  precarious ;  while  on  the  other  hand 
they  were  offered  bounties  and  glittering  re- 

*  The  total  number  of  colored  troops  enlisted  during  the 
war  was  186,097. — "Statistical  Records  of  the  Armies  of  the 
United  States,"  by  Frederick  Phisterer,  late  Captain,  U.  S.  A. 

f  There  was  a  growing  sentiment  in  favor  of  enlisting  the 
Negroes  to  fight  the  Confederacy,  and  a  number  of  regiments 
were  enlisted.  One  of  these  was  enlisted  in  New  Orleans; 
two  were  enlisted  in  Virginia. 


22  THE  NEGRO: 

wards  that  drew  into  the  armies  hundreds  of 
thousands  of  other  nationalities.  The  number 
that  must  be  credited  to  refugees  who  left 
home  in  the  first  instance  for  the  purpose  of 
volunteering  to  fight  for  freedom  is  believed 
by  the  writer  to  be  not  large;  personally,  he 
never  knew  of  one.  However  large  the  num 
ber  was,  the  number  of  those  who  might  have 
gone,  and  yet  threw  in  their  lot  with  their  mas 
ters  and  never  dreamed  of  doing  otherwise,  was 
far  larger.  Many  a  master  going  off  to  the 
war  intrusted  his  wife  and  children  to  the  care 
of  his  servants  with  as  much  confidence  as  if 
they  had  been  of  his  own  blood.  They  acted 
rather  like  clansmen  than  like  bondmen.  Not 
only  did  they  remain  loyal,  but  they  were  nearly 
always  faithful  to  any  trust  that  had  been  con 
fided  to  them.  They  were  the  faithful  guar 
dians  of  their  masters'  homes  and  families;  the 
trusted  agents  and  the  shrewd  counsellors  of 
their  mistresses.  They  raised  the  crops  which 
fed  the  Confederate  armies,  and  suffered  with 
out  complaint  the  privations  which  came  alike 
to  white  and  black  from  the  exactions  of  war. 
On  the  approach  of  the  enemy,  the  trusted 
house  servants  hid  the  family  silver  and  valu 
ables,  guarded  horses  and  other  property,  and 


THE  SOUTHERNER'S   PROBLEM        23 

resisted  all  temptation  to  desert  or  betray.  It 
must,  of  course,  rest  always  on  conjecture;  but 
the  writer  believes  that,  had  the  Negro  been 
allowed  to  fight  for  the  South,  more  of  them 
would  have  volunteered  to  follow  their  masters 
than  ever  volunteered  in  the  service  of  the 
Union.  Many  went  into  the  field  with  their 
masters,  where  they  often  displayed  not  only 
courage  but  heroism,  and,  notwithstanding  all 
temptations,  stood  by  them  loyally  to  the  end. 
As  Henry  Grady  once  said,  UA  thousand 
torches  would  have  disbanded  the  Southern 
Army,  but  there  was  not  one." 

The  inference  that  has  been  drawn  from  this 
is  usually  one  which  is  wholly  in  favor  of  the 
colored  race.  It  is,  however,  rather  a  tribute 
to  both  races.  Had  slavery  at  the  South  been 
the  frightful  institution  that  it  has  ordinarily 
been  pictured,  with  the  slave-driver  and  the 
bloodhound  always  in  the  foreground,  it  is 

*  The  writer  never  heard  of  a  body-servant  deserting,  and 
he  knows  of  sundry  instances  when  they  had  abundant  op 
portunity.  In  some  cases  they  would  vanish  for  days  and 
then  reappear,  laden  with  spoils  that  they  had  gotten  from 
the  enemy.  The  body-servant  of  the  writer's  father,  having 
been  punished  for  some  dereliction  of  duty  while  before 
Petersburg,  in  1865,  ran  away,  but  though  he  could  easily 
have  crossed  through  the  lines  not  three  miles  away,  he 
walked  sixty  miles  and  came  home. 


24  THE  NEGRO: 

hardly  credible  that  the  failure  of  the  Negroes 
to  avail  themselves  of  the  opportunities  for 
freedom  so  frequently  offered  them  would  have 
been  so  general  and  the  loyalty  to  their  masters 
have  been  so  devoted. 

One  other  reason  is  commonly  overlooked. 
The  instinct  for  command  of  the  white  race — 
at  least,  of  that  section  to  which  the  whites  of 
this  country  belong — is  a  wonderful  thing:  the 
serene  self-confidence  which  reckons  no  opposi 
tion,  but  drives  straight  for  the  highest  place, 
is  impressive.  It  made  the  race  in  the  past;  it 
has  preserved  it  in  our  time.  The  Negroes 
knew  the  courage  and  constancy  of  their  mas 
ters.  They  had  had  abundant  proof  of  them 
for  generations,  and  their  masters  were  now  in 
arms. 

The  failure  of  a  servile  population  to  rise 
against  their  masters  in  time  of  war  is  no 
new  thing.  History  furnishes  many  illustra 
tions.  Plutarch  tells  how  the  besiegers  of  a 
certain  city  offered,  not  only  freedom  to  the 
slaves,  but  added  to  it  the  promise  of  their 
masters'  property  and  wives  if  they  would  de 
sert  them.  Yet  the  offer  was  rejected  with 
scorn.  During  the  Revolution,  freedom  on  the 
same  terms  was  offered  the  slaves  in  Virginia 


THE  SOUTHERNER'S   PROBLEM        25 

and  the  Carolinas  by  the  British,  but  with  little 
effect,  except  to  inflame  the  masters  to  bitterer 
resistance.*  The  result  was  the  same  during 
the  Civil  War. 


THE  exactions  of  the  war  possibly  brought 
the  races  nearer  together  than  they  had  ever 
been  before.  There  had  been,  in  times  past, 
some  hostile  feeling  between  the  Negroes  and 
the  plain  whites,  due  principally  to  the  well- 
known  arrogance  of  a  slave  population  toward 
a  poor,  free,  working  population.  This  was 
largely  dispelled  during  the  war,  on  the  one 
side  by  the  heroism  shown  by  the  poor  whites, 
and  on  the  other  by  the  kindness  shown  by  the 
Negroes  to  their  families  while  the  men  were 
in  the  army.  When  the  war  closed,  the  friend 
ship  between  the  races  was  never  stronger;  the 
relations  were  never  more  closely  welded.  The 
fidelity  of  the  Negroes  throughout  the  war  was 
fully  appreciated  and  called  forth  a  warmer  af 
fection  on  the  part  of  the  masters  and  mis 
tresses,  and  the  care  and  self-denial  of  the 
whites  were  equally  recognized  by  the  Negroes. 

*  Trevellyan's  "History  of  the  American   Revolution," 
Part  2,  Vol.  I. 


OF  THE 

UNIVERSITY 

OF 


26  THE  NEGRO: 

Nor  did  this  relation  cease  with  the  emanci 
pation  of  the  Negro.  The  return  of  the  mas 
ters  was  hailed  with  joy  in  the  quarters  as  in 
the  mansion.  When  the  worn  and  disheartened 
veteran  made  his  last  mile  on  his  return  from 
Appomattox,  it  was  often  the  group  of  Negroes 
watching  for  him  at  the  plantation  gate  that 
first  caught  his  dimmed  eye  and  their  shouts  of 
welcome  that  first  sounded  in  his  ears. 

A  singular  fact  was  presented  which  has  not 
been  generally  understood.  The  joy  with 
which  the  slaves  hailed  emancipation  did  not 
relax  the  bonds  of  affection  between  them  and 
their  former  masters  and  mistresses.  There 
was,  of  course,  ex  necessitate  ret,  much  disor 
ganization,  and  no  little  misunderstanding. 
The  whites,  defeated  and  broken,  but  unquelled 
and  undismayed,  were  unspeakably  sore;  the 
Negroes,  suddenly  freed  and  facing  an  un 
known  condition,  were  naturally  in  a  state  of 
excitement.  But  the  transition  was  accom 
plished  without  an  outbreak  or  an  outrage,  and, 
so  far  as  the  writer's  experience  and  informa 
tion  go,  there  were  on  either  side  few  in 
stances  of  insolence,  rudeness,  or  ill-temper, 
incident  to  the  break-up  of  the  old  relation. 
This  was  reserved  for  a  later  time,  when  a 


THE  SOUTHERNER'S   PROBLEM        27 

new  poison  had  been  instilled  into  the  Negro's 
mind  and  had  begun  to  work.  Such  disorders 
as  occurred  were  incident  to  the  passing  through 
the  country  of  disbanded  troops,  making  their 
way  home  without  the  means  of  subsistence,  but 
even  these  were  sporadic  and  temporary. 

For  years  after  the  war  the  older  Negroes, 
men  and  women,  remained  the  faithful  guar 
dians  of  the  white  women  and  children  of  their 
masters'  families.* 

One  reason  which  may  be  mentioned  for  the 
good-will  that  continued  to  exist  during  this 
crisis,  and  has  borne  its  part  in  preserving 
kindly  relations  ever  since,  is  that,  among  the 
slave-owning  class,  there  was  hardly  a  child 
who  had  not  been  rocked  in  a  colored  mammy's 
arms  and  whose  first  ride  had  not  been  taken 
with  a  Negro  at  his  horse's  head;  not  one 
whose  closest  playmates  in  youth  had  not  been 
the  young  Negroes  of  the  plantation.  The  en 
tire  generation  which  grew  up  during  and  just 
after  the  war  grew  up  with  the  young  Ne 
groes,  and  preserved  for  them  the  feeling  and 
sympathy  which  their  fathers  had  had  before 

*  During  the  disorders  following  the  war,  the  older  Negroes 
at  the  writer's  home  were  armed  and  stood  guard  over  the 
ripened  crops. 


28  THE  NEGRO: 

them.  This  feeling  may  hardly  be  explained 
to  those  who  have  not  known  it.  Those  who 
have  known  it  will  need  no  explanation.  It 
possibly  partakes  somewhat  of  a  feudal  instinct ; 
possibly  of  a  clan  instinct.  It  is  not  mere  affec 
tion;  for  it  may  exist  where  affection  has  per 
ished  and  even  where  its  object  is  personally 
detested.  Whatever  it  is,  it  exists  universally 
with  those  who  came  of  the  slave-holding  class 
in  the  South,  who  knew  in  their  youth  the  Ne 
groes  who  belonged  to  their  family,  and,  no 
matter  what  the  provocation,  they  can  no  more 
divest  themselves  of  it  than  they  can  of  any 
other  principle  in  their  lives. 


CHAPTER  II 

SOME  OF  ITS  DIFFICULTIES  AND   FALLACIES 

SUCH  was  the  relation  between  the  whites 
and  the  blacks  of  the  South  when 
emancipation  came.  It  remains  now  to 
show  what  changes  have  taken  place  since  that 
time;  how  these  changes  have  come  about,  and 
what  errors  have  been  committed  in  dealing 
with  the  Race-question  which  still  affect  the  two 
races. 

The  dissension  which  has  come  between  the 
two  races  has  either  been  sown  since  the  Ne 
gro's  emancipation  or  is  inherent  in  the  new 
conditions  that  have  arisen. 

When  the  war  closed,  and  the  emancipation 
of  the  Negroes  became  an  established  fact,  the 
first  pressing  necessity  in  the  South  was  to  se 
cure  the  means  of  living;  for  in  sections  where 
the  armies  had  been  the  country  had  been  swept 
clean,  and  in  all  sections  the  entire  labor  sys 
tem  was  disorganized.  The  internal  manage 
ment  of  the  whole  South,  from  the  general  gov- 
29 


30  THE  NEGRO: 

ernment  of  the  Confederate  States  to  the  do 
mestic  arrangement  of  the  simplest  household 
among  the  slave-holding  class,  had  fallen  to 
pieces. 

In  most  instances — indeed,  in  all  of  which 
the  writer  has  any  knowledge — the  old  masters 
informed  their  servants  that  their  homes  were 
still  open  to  them,  and  that  if  they  were  willing 
to  remain  and  work,  they  would  do  all  in  their 
power  to  help  them.  But  to  remain,  in  the  first 
radiant  holiday  of  freedom,  was,  perhaps,  more 
than  could  be  expected  of  human  nature,  and 
most  of  the  blacks  went  off  for  a  time,  though 
later  a  large  number  of  them  returned.*  In 
a  little  while  the  country  was  filled  with  an 
army  of  occupation,  and  the  Negroes,  moved 
partly  by  curiosity,  partly  by  the  strangeness 
of  the  situation,  and,  perhaps  mainly,  by  the 
lure  of  the  rations  which  the  Government  im 
mediately  began  to  distribute,  not  unnaturally 
flocked  to  the  posts  of  the  local  garrisons,  leav 
ing  the  fields  unworked  and  the  crops  to  go  to 
destruction. 

From  this  time  began  the  change  in  the 
Negroes  and  in  the  old  relation  between  them 

*  The  same  thing  happened  in  Russia  on  the  emancipa 
tion  of  the  serfs.     See  Kropotkin's  Memoirs. 


THE   SOUTHERNER'S   PROBLEM        31 

and  the  whites;  a  change  not  great  at  first,  and 
which  never  became  great  until  the  Negroes 
had  been  worked  on  by  the  ignorant  or  de 
signing  class  who,  in  one  guise  or  another,  be 
came  their  teachers  and  leaders.  In  some  places 
the  action  of  military  commanders  had  already 
laid  the  ground  for  serious  misunderstanding 
by  such  orders  as  those  which  were  issued  in 
South  Carolina  for  putting  the  Negroes  in  pos 
session  of  what  were,  with  some  irony,  termed 
"  abandoned  lands."  The  idea  became  wide 
spread  that  the  Government  was  going  to  di 
vide  the  lands  of  the  whites  among  the  Negroes. 
Soon  all  over  the  South  the  belief  became  cur 
rent  that  every  Negro  was  to  receive  "  forty 
acres  and  a  mule";  a  belief  that  undoubtedly 
was  fostered  by  some  of  the  U.  S.  officials.  But, 
in  the  main,  the  military  commanders  acted 
with  wisdom  and  commendable  breadth  of 
view,  and  the  breach  was  made  by  civilians. 

From   the  first,   the   conduct  of  the   North 
toward  the  Negro  was  founded  on  the  follow 
ing  principles:    First,   that   all  men   are   equal     ( 
(whatever  this  may  mean),  and  that  the  Negro 
is  the  equal  of  the  white;   secondly,   that  he     V 
needed  to  be  sustained  by  the  Government;  and      / 
thirdly,  that  the  interests  of  the  Negro  and  the     >*-? 


32  THE  NEGRO: 

white  were  necessarily  opposed,  and  the  Negro 
needed  protection  against  the  white. 

The  South  has  always  maintained  that  these 
were  fundamental  errors. 

It  appears  to  the  writer  that  the  position  of 
the  South  on  these  points  is  sound;  that,  how 
ever  individuals  of  one  race  may  appear  the 
equals  of  individuals  of  the  other  race,  the 
races  themselves  are  essentially  unequal. 

The  chief  trouble  that  arose  between  the  two 
races  in  the  South  after  the  war  grew  out  of 
the  ignorance  at  the  North  of  the  actual  condi 
tions  at  the  South,  and  the  ignorance  at  the 
South  of  the  temper  and  the  power  of  the 
North.  The  North  believed  that  the  Negro 
was,  or  might  be  made,  the  actual  equal  of  the 
White,  and  that  the  South  not  only  rejected 
this  dogma,  but,  further,  did  not  accept  eman 
cipation  with  sincerity,  and  would  do  all  in  its 
power  to  nullify  the  work  which  had  already 
been  accomplished,  and  hold  the  Negroes  in 
quasi-servitude.  The  South  held  that  the  Ne 
gro  was  not  the  equal  of  the  white,  and  fur 
ther  held  that,  suddenly  released  from  slavery, 
he  must,  to  prevent  his  becoming  a  burden 
and  a  menace,  be  controlled  and  compelled  to 
work. 


THE  SOUTHERNER'S   PROBLEM        33 

In  fact,  as  ignorance  of  each  other  brought  V. 
about  the  conditions  which  produced  the  war     / 
between  the  sections,  so  it  has  brought  about 
most  of  the  trouble  since  the  war. 

The  basic  difficulty  in  the  way  of  reaching 
a  correct  solution  of  the  Negro  problem  is,  as 
has  been  stated,  that  the  two  sections  of  the 
American  people  have  hitherto  looked  at  it 
from  such  widely  different  standpoints. 

The  North,  for  the  present  far  removed  and 
well  buttressed  against  any  serious  practical  con 
sequences,  and  even  against  temporary  discom 
fort  from  the  policies  and  conditions  it  has 
advocated,  acting  on  a  theory,  filled  with  a  spirit 
of  traditionary  guardianship  of  the  Negro,  and 
reasoning  from  limited  examples  of  progression 
and  virtue,  has  ever  insisted  on  one  principle 
and  one  policy,  founded  on  a  conception  of  the 
absolute  equality  of  the  two  races.  The  South, 
in  direct  contact  with  the  practical  working  of 
every  phase  of  the  question,  affected  in  its  daily 
life  by  every  form  and  change  that  the  question 
takes,  resolutely  asserts  that  the  conception  on 
which  that  policy  is  predicated  is  fundamentally 
erroneous,  and  that  this  policy  would  destroy 
not  only  the  white  race  of  the  South,  but  even 
the  civilization  which  the  race  has  helped  to 


34  THE  NEGRO: 

establish,  and  for  which  it  stands,  and  so,  in 
time,  would  inevitably  debase  and  destroy  the 
nation  itself. 

Thus,  the  South  holds  that  the  question  is 
vastly  more  far-reaching  than  the  North  deems 
it  to  be;  that,  indeed,  it  goes  to  the  very  foun 
dation  of  race  preservation.  And  this  conten 
tion,  so  far  from  being  a  mere  political  tenet, 
is  held  by  the  entire  white  population  of  the 
South  as  the  most  passionate  dogma  of  the 
white  race. 

!This  confusion  of  definitions  has  in  the  past 
resulted  in  untold  evil,  and  it  cannot  be  insisted 
on  too  often  that  it  is  of  the  utmost  importance 
that  the  truth,  whatever  it  is,  should  be  estab 
lished.  When  this  shall  be  accomplished,  and 
done  so  clearly  that  both  sides  shall  accept  it, 
the  chief  difficulty  in  the  way  of  complete  un- 
/  derstanding  between  the  sections  will  be  re- 
'  moved.  So  long  as  the  two  sections  are  divided 
upon  it,  the  question  will  never  be  settled.  As 
soon  as  they  unite  in  one  view,  it  will  settle  itself 
on  the  only  sound  foundation — that  of  unim 
peachable  economic  truth. 

To  this  ignorance  and  opposition  of  views  on 
the  part  of  the  two  sections,  unhappily,  were 
added  at  the  outset  the  misunderstandings  and 


THE  SOUTHERNER'S   PROBLEM        35 

passions  engendered  by  war,  which  prevented 
reason  having  any  great  part  in  a  work  which 
was  to  affect  the  whole  future  of  the  nation. 
With  a  fixed  idea  that  there  could  be  no  justice 
toward  the  Negroes  in  any  dealings  of  their 
former  masters,  all  matters  relating  to  the  Ne 
groes  were  intrusted  by  the  Government  to  the 
organization  which  had  recently  been  started 
for  this  very  purpose  under  the  name  of  the 
Freedmen's  Bureau.  It  was  a  subject  which 
called  for  the  widest  knowledge  and  the  broad 
est  wisdom,  and,  unhappily,  both  knowledge 
and  wisdom  appeared  to  have  been  resolutely 
banished  in  the  treatment  of  the  subject. 

The  basis  of  the  institution  of  the  Freed 
men's  Bureau  was  the  assumption  stated:  that 
the  interests  of  the  blacks  and  of  the  whites 
were  necessarily  opposed  to  each  other,  and 
that  the  blacks  needed  protection  against  the 
whites  in  all  cases.  The  densest  ignorance  of 
the  material  on  which  the  organization  was  to 
work  prevailed,  and  the  personnel  of  the  organi 
zation  was  as  unsuited  to  the  work  as  could  well 
be.  With  a  small  infusion  of  sensible  men  were 
mingled  a  considerable  element  of  enthusiasts 
who  felt  themselves  called  to  be  the  regenera 
tors  of  the  slaves  and  the  scourge  of  their 


36  THE  NEGRO: 

former  masters,  and  with  these,  a  large  element 
of  reckless  adventurers  who,  recognizing  a 
field  for  the  exercise  of  their  peculiar  talents, 
went  into  the  business  for  what  they  could  make 
out  of  it.  Measures  were  adopted  which  might 
have  been  sound  enough  in  themselves  if  they 
had  been  administered  with  any  practical  wis 
dom.  But  there  was  no  wisdom  in  the  admin 
istration.  Those  who  advised  moderation  and 
counselled  with  the  whites  were  set  aside.  Bred 
on  the  idea  of  slavery  presented  in  "  Uncle 
Tom's  Cabin  "  and  inflamed  by  passions  en 
gendered  by  the  war,  the  enthusiasts  honestly 
believed  that  they  were  right  in  always  taking 
the  side  of  the  down-trodden  Negro;  while  the 
adventurers,  gauging  with  an  infallible  ap 
praisement  the  feelings  at  the  North,  went 
about  their  work  with  businesslike  methods  to 
stir  up  sectional  strife  and  reap  all  they  could 
from  the  abundant  harvest.  And  of  the  two, 
the  one  did  about  as  much  mischief  as  the 
other. 

No  statement  of  any  Southern  white  person, 
however  pure  in  life,  lofty  in  morals,  high- 
minded  in  principle  he  might  be,  was  accepted. 
His  experience,  his  position,  his  character, 
counted  for  nothing.  He  was  assumed  to  be 


THE   SOUTHERNER'S   PROBLEM        37 

so  designing  or  so  prejudiced  that  his  counsel 
was  valueless. 

It  is  a  phase  of  the  case  which  has  not  yet 
wholly  disappeared,  and  even  now  we  have  pre 
sented  to  us  in  a  large  section  of  the  country 
the  singular  spectacle  of  evidence  being  weighed 
rather  by  a  man's  geographical  position  than 
by  his  character  and  his  opportunity  for  knowl 
edge. 

This  self-complacent  ignorance  is  one  of  the 
factors  which  prevent  a  complete  understanding 
of  the  problem  and  tend  to  perpetuate  the 
errors  which  have  cost  so  much  in  the  past  and, 
unless  corrected,  may  prove  yet  more  expensive 
in  the  future. 

The  conduct  of  the  Freedmen's  Bureau  mis 
led  the  Negroes  and  caused  the  first  breach  be 
tween  them  and  their  former  masters.  Igno 
rance  and  truculence  characterized  almost  every 
act  of  that  unhappy  time.  Nearly  every  mis 
take  that  could  be  made  was  made  on  both 
sides.  Measures  that  were  designed  with  the 
best  intentions  were  so  administered  as  to 
bring  these  intentions  to  wreck. 

On  the  emancipation  of  the  slaves,  the  more 
enlightened  whites  of  the  South  saw  quite  as 
clearly  as  any  person  at  the  North  could  have 


38  THE  NEGRO: 

seen  the  necessity  of  some  substitute  for  the 
former  direction  and  training  of  the  Negroes, 
and  schools  were  started  in  many  places  by 
the  old  masters  for  the  colored  children.* 

Teachers  and  money  had  come  from  the 
North  for  the  education  of  the  Negroes,  and 
many  schools  were  opened.  But  the  teachers, 
at  first,  devoted  as  many  of  them  were,  by 
their  unwisdom  alienated  the  good-will  of  the 
whites  and  frustrated  much  of  the  good  which 
they  might  have  accomplished.  They  might 
have  been  regarded  with  distrust  in  any  case, 
for  no  people  look  with  favor  on  the  mission 
aries  who  come  to  instruct  them  as  to  matters  of 
which  they  feel  they  know  much  more  than  the 
missionaries,  and  the  South  regarded  jealously 
any  teaching  of  the  Negroes  which  looked 
toward  equality.  The  new  missionaries  went 
counter  to  the  deepest  prejudice  of  the  South- 

*  The  writer  knew  personally  of  a  number  of  these  schools, 
which  began  first  as  Sunday-schools  immediately  after  the 
war.  Indeed,  under  the  inspiration  of  a  pious  lady,  the 
services  of  all  the  young  people  in  the  neighborhood  were 
called  into  requisition  in  the  spring  of  1865,  to  help  teach  a 
Sunday-school  for  the  Negro  children,  who  were  at  first  taught 
their  letters  in  the  sand.  A  little  later,  through  the  kindness  of 
friends  at  the  North,  enough  money  was  secured  to  build  a 
school-house,  which  still  stands  and  was  used  at  first  for  a 
Sunday-school  and  afterward  for  a  day-school. 


THE  SOUTHERNER'S   PROBLEM        39 

ern  people.  They  lived  with  the  Negroes, 
consorting  with  them,  and  appearing  with  them 
on  terms  of  apparent  intimacy,  and  were  be 
lieved  to  teach  social  equality,  a  doctrine  which 
was  the  surest  of  all  to  arouse  enmity  then  as 
now.  The  result  was  that  hostility  to  the  pub 
lic-school  system  sprang  up  for  a  time.  In  some 
sections  violence  was  resorted  to  by  the  rougher 
element,  though  it  was  of  short  duration,  and 
was  always  confined  to  a  small  territory.*  Be 
fore  long,  however,  this  form  of  opposition  dis 
appeared  and  the  public-school  system  became 
an  established  fact. 

The  next  step  in  the  alienation  of  the  races 
was  the  formation  of  the  secret  order  of  the 
Union  League.  The  meetings  were  held  at 
night,  with  closed  doors,  and  with  pickets 
guarding  the  approaches,  and  were  generally 
under  the  direction  of  the  most  hostile  mem 
bers  of  the  Freedmen's  Bureau.  The  whites 
regarded  this  movement  with  serious  misgiv 
ings,  as  well  they  might,  for,  having  as  its 
basic  principle  the  consolidation  of  the  Negro 
race  against  the  white  race,  it  banded  the  Ne 
groes  in  an  organization  which,  with  the  ex- 

*  See  Report  of  Congressional  Committee  in  Government 
Ku-Klux  Trials. 


40  THE  NEGRO: 

ception  of  the  Confederate  Army,  was  the  most 
complete  that  has  ever  been  known  in  the 
South,  and  the  fruits  of  which  still  survive  to 
day.  Without  going  into  the  question  of  the 
charges  that  the  League  taught  the  most  inflam 
matory  doctrines,  it  may  be  asserted  without 
fear  of  question  that  its  teaching  was  to  alienate 
the  Negroes  from  the  whites ;  to  withdraw  them 
wholly  from  reliance  on  their  former  masters, 
and  to  drill  into  their  minds  the  imperative 
necessity  of  adherence  to  their  new  leaders,  and 
those  whom  those  leaders  represented. 

Then  came  the  worst  enemy  that  either  race 
had  ever  had:  the  post-bellum  politician.  The 
problem  was  already  sufficiently  complicated 
when  politics  were  injected  into  it.  Well  might 
General  Lee  say  with  a  wise  knowledge  of  men : 
1  The  real  war  has  just  begun. " 

No  sooner  had  the  Southern  armies  laid 
down  their  guns  and  the  great  armies  of  the 
North  who  had  saved  the  Union  disbanded, 
than  the  vultures,  who  had  been  waiting  in  the 
secure  distance,  gathered  to  the  feast.  The  act 
of  a  madman  had  removed  the  wisest,  most 
catholic,  most  conservative,  and  the  ablest 
leader,  one  whose  last  thoughts  almost  had 
been  to  "  restore  the  Union  "  by  restoring  the 


PROBLEM        41 

government/of  the  Southern  States  along  con 
stitutional  fines;  and  well  the  politicians  used 
the  unhappy  tragedy  for  their  purposes.  Those 
who  had  been  most  cowardly  in  war  were  brav 
est  in  peace,  now  that  peace  had  come.  Even 
in  Mr.  Lincoln's  time  the  radical  leaders  in 
Congress  had  made  a  strenuous  fight  to  carry 
out  their  views,  and  their  hostility  to  his  plan 
of  pacification  and  reconstruction  was  expressed  L 
with  hardly  less  vindictiveness  than  they  exhib-  \ 
ited  later  toward  his  successor.*  J 

The  Southern  people,  unhappily,  acted  pre 
cisely  as  this  element  wished  them  to  act;  for 
they  were  sore,  unquelled,  and  angry.  They 
met  denunciation  with  defiance. 

Knowing  the  imperative  necessities  of  the 
time  as  no  Northerner  could  know  them;  fear 
ing  the  effects  of  turning  loose  a  slave  popula 
tion  of  several  millions,  and  ignorant  of  the 
deep  feeling  of  the  Northern  people;  the 
Southerners  hastily  enacted  laws  regulating 
labor  which  were  certainly  unwise  in  view  of 
the  consequences  that  followed,  and  possibly,  if 
enforced,  might  have  proved  oppressive,  though 
they  never  had  a  trial.  Most  of  these  laws 
were  simply  reenactments  of  old  vagrant  laws 
*  See  "Reconstruction  in  the  South  During  the  War." 


42  THE  NEGRO: 

on  the  statute  books  and  some  still  stand  on 
the  statute  books;  but  they  were  enacted 
now  expressly  to  control  the  Negroes;  they 
showed  the  animus  of  the  great  body  of  the 
whites,  and  they  aroused  a  deep  feeling  of  dis 
trust  and  much  resentment  among  the  North 
erners.  And,  finally,  they  played  into  the 
hands  of  the  politicians  who  were  on  the  look 
out  for  any  pretext  to  fasten  their  grip  on  the 
South. 

The  struggle  just  then  became  intensified  be 
tween  the  President  and  his  opponents  in 
Washington,  with  the  Presidency  and  the  con 
trol  of  the  Government  as  the  stake,  and  with 
the  South  holding  the  balance  of  power;  and, 
unhappily,  the  Negroes  appeared  to  the  politi 
cians  an  element  that  could  be  utilized  to  advan 
tage  by  being  made  the  "  permanent  allies  "  of 
what  Mr.  Stevens,  Mr.  Wade,  and  Mr.  Sum- 
ner  used  to  term  "  the  party  of  the  Union." 

So,  the  Negro  appeared  to  the  politicians  a 
useful  instrument,  and  to  the  doctrinaires  "  a 
man  and  brother  "  who  was  the  equal  of  his 
former  master,  and,  if  he  were  "  armed  with 
the  weapon  "  of  the  ballot,  would  be  able  to 
protect  himself  and  would  inevitably  rise  to  the 
full  stature  of  the  white. 


THE   SOUTHERNER'S    PROBLEM        43 

A  large  part  of  the  people  of  the  North  were 
undoubtedly  inspired  by  a  missionary  spirit 
which  had  a  high  motive  beneath  it.  But  a 
missionary  spirit  undirected  by  knowledge  of 
real  conditions  is  a  dangerous  guide  to  fol 
low.  And  the  danger  was  never  better  illus 
trated  than  in  this  revolution.  Doubtless,  some 
of  the  politicians  were  inspired  partly  by  the 
same  idea;  but  the  major  portion  had  but  one 
ruling  passion — the  securing  of  power  and  the 
down-treading  of  the  Southern  whites.* 

Then  came  the  crowning  error :  the  practical 
carrying  out  of  the  theories  by  infusing  into 
the  body  politic  a  whole  race  just  emerging 
from  slavery.  The  most  intelligent  and  con 
servative  class  of  the  whites  were  disfran 
chised;  the  entire  adult  Negro  population  were 
enfranchised. 

It  is  useless  to  discuss  the  motives  with  which 
this  was  done.  No  matter  what  the  motives 
it  was  a  national  blunder;  in  its  way  as  great 
a  blunder  as  secession. 

It  is  not  uncommonly  supposed  that  Mr.  Lin 
coln  was  the  originator  of  this  idea.  The  weight 

*  See  Congressional  debates  and  questions  put  to  witnesses 
before  the  various  High  Commissions  organized  by  Congress 
for  the  inquisition  of  affairs  at  the  South,  in  1865  and  1866. 


44  THE  NEGRO: 

of  his  name  is  frequently  given  to  it  by  the  un 
informed.  Mr.  Lincoln,  however,  was  too 
level-headed  and  clear-sighted  a  statesman  ever 
to  have  committed  so  great  a  folly.  The 
furthest  he  ever  went  was  in  his  letter  to  Gov 
ernor  Hahn,  of  Louisiana,  in  which  he  "  sug 
gested  "  the  experiment  of  intrusting  the  ballot 
to  "  some  of  the  colored  people,  for  instance 
.  .  .  the  very  intelligent,"  and  as  a  reward 
for  those  who  had  fought  for  the  Union.* 

In  fact,  for  a  year  or  two  after  the  war  no 
one  in  authority  dreamed  of  investing  the  Ne 
gro  race  at  once  with  the  elective  franchise. 
This  came  after  the  South  had  refused  to  tol 
erate  the  idea  of  the  franchise  being  conferred 
on  any  of  them,  and  after  passions  had  become 
inflamed.f 

The  eight  years  of  Reconstruction  possibly 
cost  the  South  more  tha,n  .the-  four  years  of  war 
had  cost  her.  To  state  it  in  mere  figures,  it 
may  be  said  that  when  the  eight  years  of  Ne 
gro  domination  under  carpet-bag  leaders  had 
passed,  the  public  indebtedness  of  the  Southern 

*  See  Mr.  Lincoln's  letter  to  Governor  B.  F.  Hahn,  Janu 
ary  13,  1864.  This  was  at  a  time  when  it  was  necessary 
to  have  10,000  votes  to  reconstruct  Louisiana. 

f  See  chapter  on  "  Disfranchisement  of  the  Negro." 


THE   SOUTHERNER'S   PROBLEM        45 

States  had  increased  about  fourfold,  while  the 
property  values  in  all  the  States  had  shrunk, 
and  in  those  States  which  were  under  the  Ne 
gro  rule  had  fallen  to  less  than  half  what  they 
had  been  when  the  South  entered  on  that  pe 
riod.  In  Louisiana,  for  instance,  the  cost  of 
Negro  rule  for  four  years  and  five  months 
amounted  to  $106,020,337,  besides  the  privi 
leges  and  franchises  given  away  to  those  hav 
ing  "  pulls,"  and  State  franchises  stolen.  The 
wealth  of  New  Orleans  shrank  during  these 
eight  years  from  $146,718,790  to  $88,613,- 
930,  while  real  estate  values  in  the  country  par 
ishes  shrank  from  $99,266,083  to  $47,141,- 


In  South  Carolina  and  Mississippi,  the  other 
two  States  which  were  wholly  under  Negro 
rule,  the  conditign  was,  if  anything,  worse  than 
in  Louisiana,  whilSj^^J  other  Southern  States 
it  was  not  so  bad,  mough  bad  enough. 

But  the  presentation  of  the  statistics  gives 
little  idea  of  what  the  fleople  of  the  South 
underwent  while  their  State  Governments  were 
controlled  by  Negroes. 

A  wild  Southern  politician  is  said  to  have 
once  truculently  boasted  that  he  would  call  the 

*  See  "Noted  Men  on  the  Solid    South,"  p.  427. 


46  THE  NEGRO: 

roll  of  his  slaves  at  the  foot  of  the  Bunker  Hill 
Monument.  If  the  tradition  is  true,  it  was  a 
piece  of  insolence  which  naturally  offended 
deeply  the  sentiment  of  the  people  of  the  proud 
Commonwealth  of  Massachusetts.  But  this 
was  mere  gasconade.  Had  he  been  able  to 
carry  out  his  threat,  and  then  had  he  installed 
his  Negroes  in  the  State-house  of  Massachusetts, 
and,  by  travesty  of  law,  filled  the  legislative 
halls  with  thieves  and  proceeded  to  disfranchise 
the  best  and  the  proudest  people  of  the  Com 
monwealth;  then  had  he,  sustained  by  bayonets, 
during  eight  years  ridden  rough-shod  over 
them;  cut  the  value  of  their  property  in  half; 
quadrupled  their  taxes;  sold  out  over  twenty 
per  cent,  of  the  landed  property  of  the  State 
for  forfeiture;  appointed  over  two  hundred 
Negro  trial  justices  who  could  neither  read  nor 
write,  put  a  Negro  on  the  iench  of  their  high 
est  court,  and  paraded  through  the  State  some 
thing  like  80,000  Negro  militia,  armed  with 
money  stolen  from  the  State,  to  insult  and  men 
ace  the  people,  while  the  whole  South  looked 
coolly  on  and  declared  that  this  treatment  was 
just;  then  might  there  be  a  partial  but  not  a 
complete  parallel  to  what  some  of  the  States 
of  the  South  endured  under  Negro  rule. 


THE   SOUTHERNER'S   PROBLEM        47 

It  is  little  wonder  that  Governor  Chamber 
lain,  Republican  and  carpet-bagger  though  he 
was,  should  have  declared  as  he  did  in  writing 
to  the  New  England  Society:  "The  civiliza 
tion  of  the  Puritan  and  Cavalier,  of  the  Round 
head  and  Huguenot,  is  in  peril."  * 

The  South  does  not  hold  that  the  Negro  race 
was  primarily  responsible  for  this  travesty  of 
government.  Few  reasonable  men  now  charge 
the  Negroes  at  large  with  more  than  ignorance 
and  an  invincible  faculty  for  being  worked  on. 
But  the  consequences  were  none  the  less  disas 
trous. 

The  injury  to  the  whites  was  not  the  only 
injury  caused  by  the  reconstruction  system.  To 
the  Negroes,  the  objects  of  its  bounty,  it  was 
no  less  a  calamity. 

However  high  the  motive  may  have  been, 
no  greater  error  could  have  been  committed; 
nothing  could  have  been  more  disastrous  to  the . 
Negro's  future  than  the  teaching  he  thus  re 
ceived.  He  was  taught  that  the  white  man  was 
his  enemy  when  he  should  have  been  taught  to 
cultivate  his  friendship.  He  was  told  he  was  the 

*  Governor  Chamberlain  has  recently  written  an  open 
letter  to  Mr.  James  Bryce  in  which  he  espouses  warmly  the 
views  held  generally  by  the  Southern  whites  on  this  subject. 


48  THE  NEGRO: 

equal  of  the  white  when  he  was  not  the  equal; 
he  was  given  to  understand  that  he  was  the 
ward  of  the  nation  when  he  should  have  been 
trained  in  self-reliance;  he  was  led  to  believe 
that  the  Government  would  sustain  him  when 
he  could  not  be  sustained.  In  legislation,  he 
was  taught  thieving;  in  politics,  he  was  taught 
not  to  think  for  himself,  but  to  follow  slav 
ishly  his  leaders  (and  such  leaders!);  in  pri 
vate  life,  he  was  taught  insolence.  A  laborer, 
dependent  on  his  labor,  no  greater  misfortune 
could  have  befallen  him  than  estrangement 
from  the  Southern  whites.  To  instil  into  his 
mind  the  belief  that  the  Southern  white  was 
his  enemy;  that  his  interest  was  necessarily 
opposed  to  that  of  the  white,  and  that  he  must 
thwart  the  white  man  to  the  utmost  of  his 
power,  was  to  deprive  him  of  his  best  friend 
and  to  array  against  him  his  strongest  enemy. 
To  the  teachings  which  led  the  Negro  to  feel 
that  he  was  "  the  ward  of  the  nation  ";  that  he 
was  a  peculiar  people  whom  the  nation  had 
taken  under  its  wing  and  would  support  and 
foster;  and  that  he  could,  by  its  fiat,  be  made 
the  equal  of  the  white,  and  would,  by  its  strong 
arm,  be  sustained  as  such,  may,  perhaps,  be 
traced  most  of  the  misfortunes  of  the  Negro 


THE  SOUTHERNER'S   PROBLEM        49 

race,  and,  indeed,  of  the  whole  South,  since 
the  war.  The  Negro  saw  the  experiment  be 
ing  tried;  he  saw  his  former  master,  who  had 
been  to  him  the  type  of  all  that  was  powerful 
and  proud,  and  brave,  and  masterful,  put  down 
and  held  down  by  the  United  States  Govern 
ment,  while  he,  himself,  was  set  up  and  de 
clared  his  full  equal.  He  is  quick  to  learn,  and 
during  this  period,  when  he  was  sustained  by 
the  Government,  he  was  as  insolent  as  he  dared 
to  be.  The  only  check  on  him  was  his  lurking 
recognition  of  the  Southerner's  dominant  force. 

The  one  thing  that  saved  the  Southerners 
was  that  they  knew  it  was  not  the  Negroes  but 
the  Federal  Government  that  held  them  in  sub 
jection. 

The  day  the  bayonets  were  withdrawn  from 
the  South,  the  Negro  power,  which  but  the  day 
before  had  been  as  arrogant  and  insolent  as 
ever  in  the  whole  course  of  its  brief  authority, 
fell  to  pieces. 

It  is  little  less  than  amazing  that  the  whites 
of  the  South  should,  after  all  that  they  went 
through  during  the  period  of  reconstruction, 
have  retained  their  kindly  feeling  for  the  Ne 
groes,  and  not  only  retained  but  increased  their 
loyalty  to  the  Union.  To  the  writer,  it  seems 


50  THE  NEGRO: 

one  of  the  highest  tributes  to  the  white  peo 
ple  of  the  South  that  their  patriotism  should 
have  remained  so  strong  after  all  they  had 
endured. 

The  explanation  is  that  the  hostility  of  the 
Southern  people  was  not  directed  so  much 
against  the  United  States  or  its  Government, 
to  form  which  they  had  contributed  so  much 
and  in  which  they  had  taken  so  much  pride,  as 
against  that  element  among  the  people  of  the 
North  that  had  always  opposed  them,  particu 
larly  where  slavery  was  concerned.  In  seced 
ing,  the  Southerners  had  acted  on  the  doctrine 
enunciated  by  so  distinguished  a  Northerner  as 
John  Quincy  Adams  in  1839,  when  he  declared 
that  it  would  be  better  for  the  States  to  "  part 
in  friendship  from  each  other  than  to  be  held 
together  by  constraint,"  and  look  forward  "  to 
form  again  a  more  perfect  friendship  by  dis 
solving  that  which  could  not  bind,  and  to  leave 
the  separated  parts  to  be  reunited  by  the  law 
of  political  gravitation  to  the  centre,"  *  and 
now,  slavery  and  secession  having  finally  been 

*  See  debates  in  Congress,  April  3,  1839;  January  23,  1842; 
seq. :  when  John  Quincy  Adams  presented  a  petition  to  Con 
gress  from  Haverhill,  Mass.,  praying  that  Congress  would 
"immediately  adopt  measures  possible  to  dissolve  the  union 
of  the  States." 


THE  SOUTHERNER'S   PROBLEM        51 

disposed  of,  they  naturally  and  necessarily 
gravitated  back  to  the  old  feeling  for  the 
Union. 

It  is  not  less  remarkable  that,  notwithstand 
ing  all  the  humiliation  they  had  to  endure  dur 
ing  the  period  of  Negro  domination,  they 
should  still  have  retained  their  feeling  of  kind 
liness  for  the  race.  The  fact,  however,  was 
that  they  did  not  charge  against  the  race  in 
general  the  enormities  which  were  committed 
by  them  during  that  period.  However  they 
might  be  outraged  by  their  insolence  and  their 
acts,  they  charged  it  rather  against  the  leaders 
than  against  the  followers.  The  Southerners 
knew  the  Negroes;  knew  their  weaknesses  and 
their  merits,  and  knew  how  easily  they  were 
misled.  And  it  was  always  significant  that 
though  the  Negroes  universally  followed  their 
leaders  and,  when  they  felt  themselves  in 
power,  conducted  themselves  with  intolerable 
insolence,  at  other  times  they  exhibited  their  old 
kindliness,  and  no  sooner  was  the  instigation 
removed  than  they  were  ready  to  resume  their 
old  relation  of  dependence  and  affection. 

Indeed,  those  who  had  been  the  worst  and 
most  revolutionary  had  no  sooner  sunk  back 
into  their  former  position  of  civility  than  they 


52  THE  NEGRO: 

were  forgiven  and  treated  with  good-natured 
tolerance.* 

With  the  overthrow  of  the  carpet-bag  gov 
ernments,  and  the  destruction  of  Negro  dom 
ination  at  the  South,  the  South  began  to  shoot 
up  into  the  light  of  a  new  prosperity.  Bur 
dened  as  she  was  by  debt ;  staggering  under  dis 
asters  that  had  well-nigh  destroyed  her;  scarred 
by  the  struggle  through  which  she  had  gone, 
and  scorched  by  the  passions  of  that  fearful 
time,  she  set  herself  with  all  her  energies  to 
recovering  through  the  arts  of  peace  her  old 
place  in  the  path  of  progress.  The  burden  she 
has  borne  has  been  heavy,  but  she  has  carried  it 
bravely  and  triumphantly. 

Her  property  values  have  steadily  increased. 
Mills  have  been  started  and  manufactories  es 
tablished,  and  this  not  only  by  Southern  invest 
ors,  but,  to  a  considerable  extent,  by  Northern 

*  For  years,  one  of  the  popular  paper-carriers  of  Richmond 
was  a  certain  Lewis  Lindsay  who,  during  the  early  period  of 
reconstruction,  had  been  one  of  the  most  violent  of  the  Negro 
leaders,  and  became  noted  for  a  speech  in  which  he  declared 
that  he  wished  to  wade  in  white  blood  up  to  his  knees.  In 
Charleston,  another  leader,  equally  violent,  later  sold  fish  in 
the  market,  and  among  his  customers  were  the  very  persons 
toward  whom  he  had  once  been  so  outrageous.  In  New 
Orleans,  another  was  a  hostler.  Such  instances  could 
readily  be  multiplied. 


THE  SOUTHERNER'S   PROBLEM        53 

capital,  until  the  South  has  become  one  of  the 
recognized  fields  for  investment.  This,  among 
other  causes,  has  made  the  South  restive  under 
an  electorate  which  has  confined  her  to  one 
political  party,  shut  her  off  from  ability  to  di 
vide  on  economic  questions,  and  which,  to  a 
certain  extent,  withdrew  her  from  her  due  par 
ticipation  in  the  National  Government.  With 
this,  another  cause  is  the  change  of  the  relation 
between  the  two  races.  It  is  useless  to  blink 
the  question.  The  old  relation  of  intimacy  and 
affection  that  survived  to  a  considerable  extent 
even  the  strain  and  stress  of  the  reconstruction 
period,  and  the  repressive  measures  that  fol 
lowed  it,  has  passed  away,  and  in  its  place  has 
come  a  feeling  of  indifference  or  contempt  on 
the  one  side,  and  indifference  or  envy  on  the 
other.  In  some  places,  under  some  conditions, 
the  old  attitude  of  reliance  and  the  old  feeling 
of  affection  still  remain.  For  example,  in 
many  families,  the  old  relation  of  master  and 
servant,  of  superior  and  retainer,  may  still  ex 
ist.  In  some  neighborhoods  or  towns,  individ 
uals  of  the  colored  race,  by  their  ability  and 
character,  have  achieved  a  position  which  has 
brought  to  them  the  respect  and  sincere  good 
will  of  the  whites.  A  visit  to  the  South  will 


54  THE  NEGRO: 

show  anyone  that,  in  the  main,  the  feeling  of 
kindness  and  good-will  has  survived  all  the 
haranguing  of  the  politician  and  all  the  teach 
ing  of  the  doctrinaire.  Ordinarily,  the  children 
still  play  together,  the  men  work  together,  the 
elders  still  preserve  their  old  good-will.  The 
whites  visit  the  sick  and  afflicted,  help  the 
unfortunate,  relieve  the  distressed,  console  the 
bereaved,  and  perform  the  old  offices  of  kind 
ness.  But  this  is,  to  some  extent,  exceptional. 
It  is  mainly  confined  to  the  very  young,  the 
old,  or  the  unfortunate  and  dependent.  The 
rule  is  a  changed  relation  and  a  widening 
breach.  The  teaching  of  the  younger  genera 
tion  of  Negroes  is  to  be  rude  and  insolent.  In 
the  main,  it  is  only  where  the  whites  have  an 
undisputed  authority  that  the  old  relation  sur 
vives.  Where  the  whites  are  so  superior  in 
numbers  that  no  question  can  be  raised;  or 
again,  where,  notwithstanding  the  reversed  con 
ditions,  the  whites  are  in  a  position  so  dom 
inant  as  not  to  admit  of  question,  harmony 
prevails. 

When  the  relations  are  reversed  there  is 
danger  of  an  outbreak.  The  Negro,  misled  by 
the  teaching  of  his  doctrinaire  friends  into 
thinking  himself  the  equal  of  the  white,  asserts 


THE  SOUTHERNER'S   PROBLEM        55 

himself,  and  the  white  resents  it.  The  conse 
quence  is  a  clash,  and  the  Negro  becomes  the 
chief  sufferer  so  invariably  that  it  ought  to 
throw  some  light  on  the  doctrine  of  equality. 


CHAPTER    III 

ITS    PRESENT    CONDITION   AND    ASPECT,    AS 
SHOWN    BY    STATISTICS 

HAVING  in  the  two  previous  papers 
undertaken  to  show  the  relation  be 
tween  the  whites  of  the  South  and 
the  Negroes  at  the  time  of  the  abolition  of  sla 
very,  and  having  traced  the  change  in  that  re 
lation  and  pointed  out  the  mistakes  which,  in 
the  writer's  opinion,  were  mainly  responsible 
for  whatever  trouble  has  since  arisen  between 
them,  it  now  remains  to  see  what  the  present 
condition  is;  how  far  it  is  attributable  to  those 
causes,  and  what  promise  the  future  holds  of 
amendment. 

Thirty-eight  years  have  passed  since  the  Ne 
gro  was  set  free  and  became  his  own  master. 
By  sentimentalists  and  Negro  writers  and  ora 
tors,  most  of  the  Negro's  shortcomings  are  usu 
ally  charged  to  slavery,  and  undoubtedly  sla 
very  leaves  certain  traits  which  the  student  can 
readily  detect.  But  most  of  the  class  of  writ 
ers  referred  to  ignore  the  fact  that  the  Negro 

56 


THE  SOUTHERNER'S   PROBLEM        57 

at  the  close  of  slavery  was  in  a  higher  condi 
tion  of  civilization  than  when  he  came  a  sav 
age  from  the  wilds  of  Africa.  Of  slavery  it 
may  be  said  that  it  was  the  greatest  evil  that 
ever  befell  this  country.  It  kept  the  sections 
divided  and  finally  plunged  the  nation  into  a 
devastating  civil  war.  This  is  indictment 
enough.  But  to  the  Negro  it  was  far  from  an 
unmixed  evil.  This  very  period  of  slavery  in 
America  had  given  to  him  the  only  semblance 
of  civilization  which  the  Negro  race  has  pos 
sessed  since  the  dawn  of  history.  \ 

Whatever  evils  slavery  may  have  entailed 
upon  the  Negro,  this  much  may  unquestionably 
be  predicted  of  it :  it  left  him  a  trained  laborer 
and  in  good  physical  condition.  He  started  in 
on  a  new  era  with  a  large  share  of  friendliness 
on  the  part  of  the  South  and  with  the  enthu 
siastic  good-will  of  the  North.  He  had  little 
property,  and  not  more  than  two  or  three  per 
cent,  were  able  to  read;  but  he  commanded  the 
entire  field  of  labor  in  the  South,  while  a  cer 
tain  percentage,  composed  of  house-servants, 
had  the  knowledge  which  comes  from  holding 
positions  of  responsibility  and  from  constant 
association  with  educated  people. 

When  the  war  closed,  among  the  four  mill- 


58  THE  NEGRO: 

ions  of  Negroes  who  then  inhabited  the  South, 
there  was,  with  the  exception  of  the  invalids, 
the  cripples,  and  the  superannuated,  scarcely  an 
adult  who  was  not  a  trained  laborer  or  a  skilled 
artisan.  In  the  cotton  section  they  knew  how 
to  raise  and  prepare  cotton;  in  the  sugar 
belt  they  knew  how  to  grow  and  grind  sugar; 
in  the  tobacco,  corn,  wheat,  and  hay  belts  they 
knew  how  to  raise  and  prepare  for  market  those 
crops.  They  were  the  shepherds,  cattle-men, 
horse-trainers  and  raisers.  The  entire  indus 
trial  work  of  the  South  was  performed  by  them. 
They  were  the  trained  domestic  servants — laun 
dresses,  nurses,  and  midwives.  They  were  the 
carpenters,  smiths,  coopers,  sawyers,  wheel 
wrights,  bricklayers,  and  boatmen.  They  were 
the  tanners  and  shoemakers,  miners  and  stone 
cutters,  tailors  and  knitters,  spinners  and  weav 
ers.  Nearly  all  the  houses  in  the  South  were 
built  by  them.  They  manufactured  most  of 
the  articles  that  were  manufactured  in  the 
South. 

No  exact  statistics  of  the  race  at  that  time 
may  be  obtained,  but  a  reasonably  approximate 
estimate  may  be  made,  based  on  the  known 
facts,  as  to  the  number  of  slave-holders,  and 
the  general  relation  of  house-servants,  mechan- 


THE  SOUTHERNER'S   PROBLEM        59 

ics,  etc.,  to  the  entire  population.  It  is  known, 
for  instance,  that  the  slave-holder,  whether  he 
owned  few  or  many,  invariably  had  his  best 
slaves  as  domestic  servants.  It  is  equally  well 
known  that  the  large  plantations  hired  the  ser 
vices  of  those  on  the  larger  estates. 

In  1860  there  were  in  the  Southern  States 
between  five  and  six  hundred  thousand  slave 
owners  and  slave  hirers,  and  there  were  four 
million  and  a  quarter  slaves,  or  about  eight 
slaves  to  each  owner.*  Of  these  slave-owners, 
perhaps,  every  one  had  at  least  one  house-ser 
vant,  and  most  of  them  had  several.  Striking 
a  mean  between  the  smaller  slave-owner  and 
the  larger,  it  would  probably  be  found  that  the 
proportion  of  mechanics  and  artisans  to  the  en 
tire  population  was  about  the  same  that  it  is  in 
any  agricultural  community,  or,  as  the  slave  is 
known  to  be  generally  not  as  industrious  and 
efficient  as  the  free  workman,  the  percentage 
was  possibly  higher  than  it  is  to-day  in  the  West 
or  in  the  agricultural  parts  of  the  South.  It  is 
not  pretended  that  this  is  more  than  a  conject 
ure,  but  it  is  a  conjecture  based  upon  what 
appears  a  conservative  estimate. 

*  In  Georgia,  for  example,  there  were  in    1860,  462,198 
slaves,  owned  by  41,084  owners. 


60  THE  NEGRO: 

Since  that  time,  according  to  the  census  of 
1900,  over  $109,000,000  had  been  expended 
by  the  South  on  the  Negro's  education,  besides 
what  has  been  expended  by  private  charity, 
which  is  estimated  to  amount  to  $30,000,000. 

The  South  has  faithfully  applied  itself  dur 
ing  all  these  years  to  giving  the  Negroes  all  the 
opportunities  possible  for  attaining  an  educa 
tion,  and  it  is  one  of  the  most  creditable  pages 
in  her  history  that  in  face  of  the  horror  of  Ne 
gro-domination  during  the  Reconstruction  pe 
riod;  of  the  disappointment  at  the  small  re 
sults;  in  face  of  the  fact  that  the  education  of 
the  Negroes  has  appeared  to  be  used  by  them 
only  as  a  weapon  with  which  to  oppose  the 
white  race,  the  latter  should  have  persistenly 
given  so  largely  of  its  store  to  provide  this 
misused  education.  Of  the  $109,000,000 
which  the  Southern  States  have,  since  the 
war,  applied  to  the  education  of  the  Negro  by 
voluntary  taxation,  over  $100,000,000  was 
raised  by  the  votes  of  the  whites  from  taxation 
on  the  property  of  the  whites.  Several  times 
of  late  years  propositions  have  been  made  in 
various  legislatures  in  the  South  to  devote  the 
money  raised  by  taxation  of  the  property  of 
each  race  exclusively  to  the  education  of  that 


THE  SOUTHERNER'S   PROBLEM        61 

race,  but  in  every  case,  to  their  credit  be  it  said, 
the  propositions  have  been  overwhelmingly  de 
feated.*  The  total  expenditure  for  public 
schools  in  the  South  in  the  year  1898-1899  was 
$32,849,892,  of  which  $6,569,978  was  to  sus 
tain  Negro  schools. 

Inspection  of  the  records  will  reveal  some 
thing  of  the  fruits  of  the  $140,000,000  ex 
pended  on  the  education  of  the  Negroes  at  the 
South,  and  the  rest  must  be  learned  from  those 
who  have  studied  the  subject  at  first  hand. 

It  seems  to  the  writer  that  one  of  the  funda 
mental  errors  which  have  inhered  in  all  the  dis 
cussion  which  has  taken  place  on  the  Negro 
question  is  in  considering  the  Negroes  as  abso 
lutely  of  one  class.  A  brief  consideration  of  the 
matter  will  show  on  the  contrary  that  the  col 
ored  population  of  the  South,  though  they  were, 
with  the  exception  of  a  few  Arabs,  all  of  Negro 
blood,  were,  when  they  came  to  this  country,  of 

*  According  to  the  Educational  Report  of  the  United  States 
Bureau  of  Education  for  1898-1899,  "the  total  enrolment  in 
the  public  schools  of  the  South  (the  sixteen  former  slave- 
States  and  the  District  of  Columbia)  for  the  year  1898-1899 
was  5,662,259;  the  number  of  white  children  being  4,150,641 
and  the  number  of  negro  children  1,511,618."  Of  the  white 
school  population  (5,954,400),  69.71  per  cent,  were  enrolled 
in  the  public  schools,  and  of  the  negro  school  population  (2,- 
912,910),  51.89  per  cent. 


62  THE  NEGRO: 

different  tribes ;  and  there  were,  even  during  the 
time  of  slavery,  and  are  yet  more  markedly  now, 
grades  among  them :  grades  of  intellect,  of  char 
acter,  and  of  ability,  which  point  to,  if  not  vary 
ing  racial,  at  least  varying  tribal  forces.  And 
however  they  may  all  appear  to  herd  together 
and  look  at  most  matters  not  from  an  individual 
and  rational,  but  from  a  racial  standpoint,  a 
careful  study  will  disclose  certain  distinctions 
which  have  the  mark  of  tribal  distinctions,  while 
others  will  show  the  elements  of  class  distinc 
tions.  These  class  distinctions,  though  still  ele 
mentary,  are  beginning  to  make  themselves 
apparent. 

The  line  of  cleavage  unhappily  does  not  fol 
low  that  of  conduct  or  good  manners,  much  less 
that  of  character,  but,  perhaps,  it  may  approxi 
mate  them  more  closely  in  time,  and  the  upper 
class  will  learn  and  cause  it  to  be  understood 
that  conduct,  character,  and  good  manners  are 
the  key  to  admission. 

It  is  the  intention  of  the  writer  in  this  dis 
cussion  to  recognize  this  distinction,  and,  when 
he  speaks  of  "  the  Negroes,"  he  desires  gener 
ally  to  be  understood  as  referring  to  the  great 
body  of  the  race,  and  not  as  including  what  may 
be  termed  the  upper  fraction — that  is,  those 


THE   SOUTHERNER'S   PROBLEM        63 

who,  by  reason  of  intellect,  education,  and  char 
acter,  form  so  clearly  an  exception  that  they 
must  be  considered  as  a  separate  class. 

The  Negroes,  indeed,  may  be  divided  into 
three  classes. 

The  first  is  a  small  class,  comparatively 
speaking,  who  are  more  or  less  educated,  some 
being  well  educated  and  well  conducted;  others, 
with  a  semblance  of  education  and  none  too 
well  behaved.  The  former  constitute  what  may 
be  termed  the  upper  fraction;  the  latter  possess 
only  a  counterfeit  culture  and  lack  the  essential 
elements  of  character  and  even  moral  percep 
tion. 

The  second  class  is  composed  of  a  respect 
able,  well-behaved,  self-respecting  element;  sen 
sible,  though  with  little  or  no  education,  and, 
except  when  under  the  domination  of  passion, 
good  citizens.  This  class  embraces  most  of 
the  more  intelligent  of  the  older  generation  who 
were  trained  in  slavery,  and  a  considerable  ele 
ment  of  the  intelligent  middle-aged,  conserva 
tive  workers  of  the  race  who  were  trained  by 
that  generation.  The  two  together  may  be 
called  the  backbone  of  the  race. 

The  third  class  is  composed  of  those  who  are 
wholly  ignorant,  or  in  whom,  though  they  have 


64  THE  NEGRO: 

what  they  call  education,  this  so-called  educa 
tion  is  unaccompanied  by  any  of  the  fruits  of 
character  which  education  is  supposed  to  pro 
duce.  Among  these  are  many  who  esteem 
themselves  in  the  first  class,  and,  because  of  a 
veneer  of  education,  are  not  infrequently  con 
founded  with  them. 

The  first  two  classes  may  easily  be  reckoned 
with.  They  contain  the  elements  which  make 
good  citizens  and  which  should  enable  them  to 
secure  all  proper  recognition  and  respect.  They 
need  no  weapon  but  that  which  they  possess — 
good  citizenship. 

Unfortunately,  the  great  body  of  the  race, 
and  a  vast  percentage  of  the  growing  genera 
tion,  belong  to  the  third  class.  It  is  this  class 
which  has  to  be  reckoned  with. 

It  is  like  a  vast  sluggish  mass  of  uncooled 
lava  over  a  large  section  of  the  country,  bury 
ing  some  portions  and  affecting  the  whole.  It 
is  apparently  harmless,  but  beneath  its  surface 
smoulder  fires  which  may  at  any  time  burst  forth 
unexpectedly  and  spread  desolation  all  around. 
It  is  this  mass,  increasing  from  beneath,  not 
from  above,  which  constitutes  the  Negro  ques 
tion. 

In  the  discussion  that  takes  place  in  the  pe- 


e 

THE- SOUTHERNER'S   PROBLEM        65 

riodical  press  and  in  conventions  relating  to  the 
progress  of  the  colored  race,  a  great  deal  is 
made  of  the  advance  of  the  race  since  the  aboli 
tion  of  slavery.  It  is  asserted  that  the  race  has 
accumulated  many  hundreds  of  millions  of  dol 
lars.  Just  how  much,  it  is  difficult  to  say.  Au 
thorities  differ  widely.  The  last  Negro  mem 
ber  of  Congress,*  in  a  speech  delivered  in  the 
House  of  Representatives  on  January  29,  1901, 
undertook  to  give  the  advance  of  his  race  in  the 
thirty-two  preceding  years.  "  Since  that  time," 
he  says,  "  we  have  reduced  the  illiteracy  of  the 
race  at  least  45  per  cent.  We  have  written  and 
published  nearly  500  books.  We  have  nearly 
300  newspapers,  three  of  which  are  dailies.  We 
have  now  in  practice  over  2,000  lawyers  and  a 
corresponding  number  of  doctors.  We  have 
accumulated  over  $12,000,000  worth  of  school 
property  and  about  $40,000,000  of  church 
property.  We  have  about  140,000  farms  and 
homes  valued  at  in  the  neighborhood  of  $750,- 
000,000,  and  personal  property  valued  at  about 
$170,000,000.  .  .  .  We  have  32,000  teach 
ers  in  the  schools  of  the  country.  We  have 
built,  with  the  aid  of  our  friends,  about  20,000 
churches,  and  support  7  colleges,  17  academiest 
*  George  H.  White,  of  North  Carolina. 


66  THE  NEGRO: 

50  high  schools,  5  law  schools,  5  medical 
schools,  and  25  theological  seminaries.  We 
have  over  600,000  acres  of  land  in  the  South 
alone." 

It  might  be  assumed  that,  as  he  was  glorify 
ing  his  race,  this  is  the  outside  estimate  of  what 
they  have  accomplished,  had  not  other  colored 
leaders  and  teachers  since  that  time  asserted  that 
these  figures  are  far  too  low.  To  the  writer 
these  estimates  would  appear  grossly  exagger 
ated.  Certainly  the  educational  achievement  of 
which  they  boast  cannot  justly  be  attributed,  in 
the  main,  to  the  Negro  race.  The  white  race 
furnished  95  per  cent,  of  the  money  for  the 
schools,  and  a  yet  larger  proportion  for  the 
colleges. 

It  is  stated  that  "  before  the  war  the  South 
had  a  free  Negro  population  in  excess  of  a 
quarter  of  a  million  souls,"  and,  according  to 
an  estimate  which  has  been  made  by  one  of  the 
distinguished  members  of  the  race,  the  value  of 
property  owned  by  free  Negroes  was  between 
$35,000,000  and  $40,000,000.*  Although  the 
exact  amount  must  be  based  somewhat  on  con 
jecture,  it  is  certain  that  there  were  a  consider- 

*  "The  American  Negro,"  by  William  Hannibal  Thomas, 
p.  74.     Macmillan   &  Co. 


THE  SOUTHERNER'S   PROBLEM        67 

able  number  of  free  Negroes  in  the  country  at 
that  time  who  owned  considerable  property. 
Some  of  those  in  the  South  were  land-owners 
and  slave-owners,  while  of  the  226,216  who 
lived  outside  of  the  slave  States,  a  fair  propor 
tion  were  well-to-do.  According  to  the  report 
of  a  Commission  appointed  by  Mr.  Lincoln  in 
1863  to  "  examine  and  report  upon  the  condi 
tion  of  the  newly  emancipated  Freedmen  of  the 
United  States,"  the  Commission  ascertained 
that  the  free  colored  people  of  Louisiana  in  the 
year  1860  paid  taxes  on  an  assessment  of  thir 
teen  millions.*  To  this  sum  must  be  added  the 
amount  that  was  accumulated  during  the  Recon 
struction  period,  by  other  means  than  those  of 
honest  thrift.  The  residue  marks  the  advance 
of  the  Negro  race  in  material  progress. 

Unhappily  for  those  who  claim  that  the  Ne 
gro  race  has  shown  extraordinary  thrift  since 
its  emancipation  thirty-eight  years  ago,  the  rec 
ords,  when  examined,  fail  to  bear  out  the  con 
tention. 

On  the  29th  of  June,  1903,  Mr.  Charles  A. 
Gardiner,  of  the  New  York  bar,  delivered  a 
notable  address  at  Albany,  before  the  Convoca- 

*  Wrong  of  Slavery  and  Right  of  Emancipation:  R.  D. 
Owen,  Lippincott,  Philadelphia,  1864. 


68  THE  NEGRO: 

tion  of  the  University  of  the  State  of  New  York, 
on  a  "  Constitutional  and  Educational  Solution 
of  the  Negro  Problem,"  in  which  he  presented 
some  remarkable  statements  relating  to  the  con 
dition  of  the  Negroes.  He  showed  that,  in 
1890,  the  real  and  personal  property  of  the 
fifteen  old  slave  States  was  $13,380,517,311, 
of  which  the  blacks  owned  only  3.3  per  cent., 
an  average  of  $64.20  per  capita.  The  six  At 
lantic  and  Gulf  States  had  $3,215,127,929,  of 
which  the  blacks  owned  only  3.5  per  cent.,  an 
average  of  $28.60  each.  The  writer  has  tried 
to  obtain  the  later  statistics,  but  has  not  been 
successful  in  securing  complete  statistics,  owing 
to  the  fact  that  the  United  States  Census  Bu 
reau  has  not  yet  completed  its  calculations 
touching  this  subject,  and  because  many  of  the 
States  do  not  keep  separately  the  records  of  the 
property  owned  by  the  whites  and  Negroes. 
He  has,  however,  secured  from  the  records  of 
the  States  of  Arkansas,  Georgia,  North  Caro 
lina,  and  Virginia,  where  the  records  are  kept 
separately,  the  statistics  showing  the  actual  and 
relative  amount  of  property  owned  by  the 
Negroes  for  the  year  1902 : 


THE   SOUTHERNER'S   PROBLEM        69 


ASSESSED  VALUE   OF  ALL   PROPERTY   OWNED 
BY  NEGROES. 


Population. 

Assessed  Value. 

Arkansas 

366  856 

$11  267  4OO* 

Georgia 

I  O7A.  8  I  7 

15  1  88  069 

North    Carolina  

1>uO't>01  J 
624  468 

Q  76^  086 

Virginia 

660  722 

7>5     >39 

Total  

2  686  8<co 

$C7  707  8-4.  'C 

'fjj^/y/  >"-r_) 

It  is  possible  that  the  States  of  Arkansas, 
Georgia,  North  Carolina,  and  Virginia  may  be 
considered  quite  representative  of  the  entire 
South.  The  Negroes  are  believed  to  be  as  well 
off  in  these  States  as  in  any  others.  The  four 
States  contain  2,686,859  Negroes,  which  is 
30.39  per  cent,  of  the  entire  Negro  population 
of  the  whole  United  States,  and  the  statistics 
show  that  this  30.39  per  cent,  of  the  entire  Ne 
gro  population  own  now,  in  real  and  personal 
property  listed  for  taxation,  only  $53,797,845, 
which  is  but  $20.02  per  capita.  The  assessed 

*  In  Arkansas  the  total  value  of  all  property,  including  rail 
road  property  of  the  State,  is  $225,276,681.  The  taxes  as 
sessed  on  the  property  of  the  whites  were  $3,699,025,  while 
the  taxes  assessed  on  the  property  of  the  Negroes  were  $205,- 
954-  The  value  of  the  property  held  by  the  Negroes  was 
obtained  by  assigning  to  them  an  amount  proportionate  to 
the  taxes  paid  by  them. 


7° 


THE  NEGRO: 


value  of  property  in  the  Southern  States  may 
be  stated  to  be  generally,  at  least,  three-quarters 
of  the  actual  value. 

In  the  interesting  and  valuable  statistics  as 
to  "  The  Negro  Farmer,"  compiled  by  Prof. 
W.  E.  B.  Du  Bois,  of  Atlanta  University,  we 
find  a  great  many  interesting  facts : 

PROPORTION    OF    SLAVE    OWNERS    AND    OF 

SLAVES   IN  THE   POPULATION   OF   THE 

SOUTH,    1850   AND    1860. 


CENSUS  YEAR. 

Per  Cent.  Owners  — 
Form  of 

Per  Cent. 

Slaves  — 
Form  of 
Total 
Population. 

Average 
Number  of 
Slaves  per 
Owner. 

Total 
Population. 

White 
Population. 

!86o      

3-2 
3-7 

5-1 
5.8 

34-5 
34-7 

II 

9 

1850  

*  These  figures  show  that  the  slaves  formed 
about  one-third  of  the  total  population  of  that 
section,  but  that  the  owners  of  these  slaves 
formed  only  between  5  and  6  per  cent,  of  the 
white  population  and  between  3  and  4  per  cent. 
of  the  total  population,  the  proportion  being 
even  lower  in  1860  than  in  1850. 

"  In  1900  there  were  187,799  farms  owned 
by  Negroes,  which  was  25.2  per  cent,  of  all 


THE   SOUTHERNER'S   PROBLEM        71 

farms  operated  by  Negroes.  In  1900  Negro 
farmers  who  owned  all  of  the  land  they  culti 
vated  formed  83.3  per  cent,  of  all  Negro 
owners. 

"  If  an  estimate  of  the  probable  total  farm 
wealth  of  the  Negro  farmers,  June  i,  1900,  be 
desired,  the  value  of  the  live  stock  on  rented 
farms,  of  which  a  large  share  generally  belongs 
to  the  tenants,  should  be  added.  That  value  for 
the  colored  tenants  was  $57,167,206.  Adding 
this  sum  to  the  preceding  total,  it  appears  the 
value,  June  i,  1900,  of  the  farm  property  be 
longing  to  Negroes  was  approximately  $200,- 
000,000,  or  a  little  less  than  $300  for  each 
Negro  farmer. 

"  This  estimate,  however,  takes  no  account 
of  property  owned  by  Negroes  and  rented  out 
to  either  Negroes  or  whites.  .  .  .  Therefore, 
we  are  probably  justified  in  adding  15  per  cent, 
to  the  above  estimated  value  of  property  owned 
by  Negro  farmers  in  continental  United  States, 
thus  bringing  the  total  up  to  $230,000,000. 

"  The  value  of  the  land  in  farms  of  all  col 
ored  owners  in  continental  United  States  in 
1900 — including  the  value  of  the  supplemen 
tary  land  rented,  which,  if  we  assume  it  to  be 
of  the  same  average  value  as  the  rest,  amounted 


72  THE  NEGRO: 

to  about  $7,500,000 — was  $102,022,601. 
While  some  of  the  land  is  very  good,  most  of 
it  is  poor,  being  often  practically  worn  out  or 
disadvantageously  situated  as  regards  a  mar 
ket."  * 

Statistics  relating  to  the  number  of  farms, 
acreage,  and  value  of  all  farm  property,  includ 
ing  land,  improvements,  implements,  machin 
ery,  and  livestock,  may  be  found  in  the  Twelfth 
Census  and  in  the  Census  Bulletin  No.  8,  re 
lating  to  Negroes  in  the  United  States  in  1900, 
table  69,  page  308. 

In  this  table  it  is  shown  that  the  total  num 
ber  of  farm-property  owners  including  Negro, 
Indian,  and  Mongolian  farmers  is  174,434, 
owning  land  and  improvements,  implements, 
and  machinery  valued  at  $150,557,251,  and 
part  owners,  30,501,  owning  $27,358,225. 


* 

Number  of 
Farms. 

Value  of  Farm 
Property. 

Owners        

174  4.74. 

$1  CO  CC7  2CI 

Part  Owners 

*/T»TOT 

2O  CO  I 

"°*  JW>3J/>'&JA 
27  ?c8  22C 

Owners  and  Tenants  .... 

o^O^1 
I  C.82 

•'•/>OJ{J>-e--e'J 

i  881  16? 

IVlanajjers      

»O"* 

I  824 

9777  377 

Cash  Tenants          

274.  66? 

>/  /  /  >j/  1 
178  300  242 

Share  Tenants 

284.  760 

178  840  2  CO 

THE  SOUTHERNER'S   PROBLEM 


73 


Georgia  has  been  not  infrequently  cited  as  a  State  in  which 
the  Negro  has  thriven  somewhat  exceptionally.  It  contains 
more  Negroes  than  does  any  other  State,  having,  by  the 
census  of  1900,  1,034,813  Negroes.  In  1860  it  contained 
465,698,  so  that  the  Negroes  have  since  that  time  increased 
there  at  the  rate  of  142,279  every  ten  years.  The  Bulletin 
of  the  Department  of  Labor,  No.  35,  July  1901,  contains  a 
valuable  paper  by  Prof.  Du  Bois  on  the  Negro  landholder 
in  Georgia,  based  on  a  close  study  of  the  conditions  of  the 
Negro  in  that  State.  Among  other  matters  he  gives  a  table 
containing  the  assessed  value  of  all  property  owned  by 
Negroes  in  Georgia  from  1874  to  1900  : 


ASSESSED    VALUE    OF    TOTAL    PROPERTY 
OWNED     BY    NEGROES    OF    GEOR 
GIA,  1874  TO   1900. 


Year.  Assessed  Value. 

1874 $6,157,798 

1875 5,393,885 

1876 5,488,867 

1877....  5,430,844 

1878..  5,124,875 

1879 5,182,398 

1880 5,764,293 

1881 6,478,951 

1882 6,589,876 

1883 7,582,395 

1884 8,021,525 

1885 8,153,390 

1886 8,655,298 

1887 8,963,479 


Year.  Assessed  Value. 

1888 £9,631,271 

1889 10,415,330 

1890 12,322,003 

1891 14,196,735 

1892 I4,869,575 

1893 14,960,675 

1894 14,387,730 

1895 12,941,230 

1896 13,292,816 

1897 13,619,690 

1898   13,719,200 

1899 13,447,423 

1900 14,118,720 


From  this  table  it  will  be  found  that  the  taxable  values  of 
all  the  property  owned  by  Negroes  in  Georgia  in  the  year 
1874  were  $6,157,798.  In  1890  the  Negro  population  was 
858,815.  In  1892  the  property  valuation  has  risen  to  $14,- 


74  THE  NEGRO: 

869,575,  and  in  1900,  when  the  population  was  1,034,813, 
it  was  only  $14,118,720,  or  an  actual  falling  off,  though  the 
Negroes  appear  to  have  increased  23.9  per  cent,  in  this 
time.* 

Such  is  the  showing  of  statistics  as  to  the 
advance  marked  by  the  accumulation  of  prop 
erty.  It  fails  to  bear  out  the  claim  that  the 
Negro  race  has  shown  remarkable  progress 
along  this  line.  It  must  be  further  observed 
that  in  reporting  the  property  holdings  no  ac 
count  is  taken  of  the  mortgages  and  other  in 
debtedness  of  the  property  owners. 

But  under  this  economic  presentation  lies  a 
deeper  question.  What  have  the  thousands  of 
churches  and  schools  and  colleges,  maintained 
at  the  cost  of  more  than  a  hundred  and  fifty 
million  dollars,  produced?  What  kind  of  men 
and  women  have  they  turned  out?  What  fruits 
have  they  brought  forth,  of  moral  stamina;  of 
character;  of  purity  of  life;  of  loftiness  or  even 
correctness  of  ideals?  These  are  the  true  tests 
of  progress. 

*  The  Comptroller-General  of  Georgia  reports  that  the 
assessed  value  of  the  property  of  the  white  taxpayers  of 
Georgia  for  1 902  was  $452,1 22,577.  The  property  of  the  Negro 
taxpayers  in  the  State  of  Georgia  for  the  same  year  was  as 
sessed  at  $15,188,069.  This  sum,  though  considerably  larger 
than  that  estimated  by  Professor  Du  Bois,  is  only  3.25  per 
cent,  of  the  total  assessment  of  the  State. 


THE   SOUTHERNER'S   PROBLEM        75 

To  reach  a  correct  answer  to  these  questions, 
we  may  inquire  first:  Has  the  percentage  of 
crime  decreased  in  the  race  generally?  Has  the 
wage-earning  capacity  of  the  race  generally  in 
creased  in  proportion  to  the  rise  of  wages? 
Has  the  race  generally  improved,  morally  and 
mentally?  Is  the  relative  position  of  the  race 
to  that  of  the  white  race  higher  than  it  was? 

Unquestionably,  a  certain  proportion  of  the 
Negro  race  has  risen  notably  since  the  era  of 
emancipation.  A  proportion  of  the  colored 
population — that  is,  the  upper  fraction — have 
not  only  accumulated  property  but  have,  mainly 
in  the  cities  and  towns,  attained  a  higher  stand 
ing,  based  partly  on  property,  partly  on  char 
acter,  and  partly  on  intellectual  advance.  But, 
unless  the  universal  testimony  of  the  white  peo 
ple  of  the  South  is  unreliable,  this  rise  is  con 
fined  largely  to  those  regions  where  the  Negroes 
have  had  the  aid,  sympathy,  and  encouragement 
of  the  whites.  And  it  appears  to  the  writer  that 
this  element  is  not  as  large  as  is  generally  as 
sumed,  and  that  this  very  advance  has  separated 
them  all  the  more  widely  from  the  great  body 
of  the  colored  race.  Study  of  the  question, 
moreover,  discloses  the  fact  that  almost  all 
of  the  intellectual  advance  in  the  Negro  race 


76  THE  NEGRO: 

is  confined  to  this  upper  fraction  of  the  race; 
that,  perhaps,  nine-tenths  of  the  property  accu 
mulated  has  been  accumulated  by  this  class  and 
by  the  other  fraction  which  belongs  to  the  sec 
ond  class  who  were  trained  in  slavery,  and  that, 
measured  by  the  ordinary  standards  of  char 
acter,  intellect,  and  civic  standing,  the  other 
nine-tenths  of  the  race,  so  far  from  advancing 
in  any  way,  have  either  stood  stagnant  or  have 
retrograded. 

According  to  the  United  States  Census  of 
1890,  the  native  white  criminals  in  the  United 
States  numbered  40,47 1 ;  the  native  whites 
whose  parents  were  also  native-born  numbered 
21,037;  tne  Negro  criminals  (whose  parents 
were  native)  numbered  24,277.* 

A  comparison  of  the  rural  colored  population 
will  show  that  possibly  over  ninety  per  cent,  of 
the  property  now  owned  by  the  Negroes  has 
been  accumulated  by  those  who  were  either 
trained  in  slavery  or  grew  up  immediately  after 
the  war,  so  that  they  received  the  beneficial  ef 
fects  of  the  habits  of  industry  in  which  their 
race  was  at  that  time  trained.  It  will  show  in 
the  next  place  that  the  proportion  of  convicts  in 
the  State  penitentiaries  in  the  Southern  States 
*  World  Almanac,  1903. 


THE   SOUTHERNER'S   PROBLEM        77 

from  the  Negroes  is  from  85  to  93  per  cent,  of 
the  total  number  of  convicts  confined.  In  Louis 
iana  the  proportion  is  85  per  cent,  of  all  State 
criminals.  In  Alabama  it  is  85.4  per  cent.  In 
Florida,  86.4  per  cent.  In  Mississippi  it  is  91 
per  cent.  In  Georgia  it  is  90  per  cent.,  and  in 
South  Carolina  it  is  93.2  per  cent.*  In  the 
District  of  Columbia,  where  the  Negroes  are 
assumed  to  have  had  exceptional  advantages  and 
where  possibly  a  certain  element  of  them  are  as 
well  off  as  anywhere  in  the  country,  they  fur 
nished,  a  year  or  two  ago,  86  per  cent,  of  the 
criminals.  Of  these  convicts,  more  than  nine- 
tenths  have  grown  up  since  slavery  was 
abolished. 

Meantime,  the  Negro  has  retrograded  as  a 
workman  until  he  has  not  only  lost  the  field  in 
which  he  once  had  no  rival,  but  is  in  danger 
of  losing  even  the  ability  to  compete  for  its  re 
covery.  The  superiority  of  the  older  farm 
hands  to  the  younger  generation  is  so  univer 
sally  asserted  throughout  the  South  that  it  must 
be  given  some  of  the  validity  of  general  reputa 
tion.  And  whereas,  as  has  been  shown,  a  gen 
eration  ago  all  the  mechanical  work  of  the 
South  was  in  the  hands  of  the  Negroes,  only 
*  Address  of  Charles  A.  Gardiner,  cited  before. 


7 8  THE  NEGRO: 

a  small  proportion  of  it  is  done  by  them 
to-day. 

Fifteen  years  ago  one  of  the  suburbs  of 
Richmond  was  largely  built  up  by  a  contractor 
whose  foreman  was  a  Negro.  There  was  no 
question  raised  about  it.  The  foreman  knew 
his  business;  had  been  raised  among  the  whites; 
knew  how  to  get  along  with  white  men,  and 
was  respected  and  esteemed  by  them.  This  was 
at  that  time  not  uncommon. 

What  is  the  situation  now?  The  races  are 
more  widely  divided  than  ever  before.  White 
mechanics  and  Negro  mechanics  no  longer  work 
together,  generally,  as  of  old.  No  contractor 
could  do  now  what  the  man  who  built  "  Barton 
Heights  "  did  fifteen  years  ago.  The  number 
of  Negro  carpenters  and  mechanics  is  greatly 
reduced;  and  the  writer  is  informed  by  intelli 
gent  Negroes  that  such  work  as  they  do  is 
mainly  among  their  own  people.  The  causes 
are  not  far  to  seek.  It  is  partly  due  to  a  fail 
ure  of  ability  in  the  Negro  to  hold  his  place 
in  the  struggle  of  competition,  and  partly  to 
the  changed  relations  between  him  and  the 
white.  The  old  feeling  of  friendliness  and  am 
ity  has  waned,  and  in  its  room  has  come  a  cold 
indifference,  if  not  actual  hostility.  The  new 


THE  SOUTHERNER'S   PROBLEM        79 

Negro  has  been  taught  that  he  is  the  equal  of 
the  white,  and  he  is  always  asserting  it  and 
trying  to  prove  it  by  any  way  but  the  right  way 
— the  equality  of  his  work. 

Washington  City  has  ever  since  the  time  of 
emancipation  appeared  a  sort  of  Mecca  to  many 
of  the  Negro  race.  There,  numbers  of  that 
race  have  had  opportunities  which  have  been 
wanting  to  them  in  the  South,  and  there  to-day 
may  be  found,  perhaps,  the  best  educated  ele 
ment  of  the  race  to  be  found  anywhere.  Within 
the  last  year  the  Negro  organization  known  as 
the  True  Reformers  built  in  that  city  a  hand 
some  and  expensive  structure  for  the  use  of 
their  race,  and  built  it  wholly  with  Negro  labor. 
When,  however,  the  workmen  competent  to  do 
such  work  were  sought,  it  was  found  necessary 
to  go  to  the  South  for  them. 

Yet  even  in  the  South  the  Negro  artisan  suf 
ficiently  trained  to  compete  now  with  his  white 
rival  is  comparatively  rare. 

"  The  slave-disciplined  mechanic  has  no  suc 
cessor  in  the  ranks  of  the  freedmen.  .  .  ."  * 

So  far,  then,  as  statistics  would  indicate,  the 
improvement  that  exists  among  the  Negroes  is 
not  shown  by  the  race  at  large  as  is  usually  al- 

*  "The  American  Negro,"  by  William  Hannibal  Thomas, 
p.  68. 


8o  THE  NEGRO: 

leged,  but  is  shown,  in  the  main,  by  the  upper 

fraction. 

t- 

This  proposition  is  borne  out  also  by  the  tes 
timony  of  the  great  majority  of  the  Southern 
whites  who  live  in  constant  touch  with  the 
blacks;  who  have  known  them  in  every  relation 
of  life  in  a  way  that  no  one  who  has  not  lived 
among  them  can  know  them.  Universally,  they 
will  tell  you  that  while  the  old-time  Negroes 
were  industrious,  saving,  and,  when  not  misled, 
well-behaved,  kindly,  respectful,  and  self-re 
specting,  and  while  the  remnant  of  them  who 
remain  still  retain  generally  these  characteris 
tics,  the  "  new  issue,"  for  the  most  part,  are 
lazy,  thriftless,  intemperate,  insolent,  dishonest, 
and  without  the  most  rudimentary  elements  of 
morality. 

They  unite  further  in  the  opinion  that  edu 
cation  such  as  they  receive  in  the  public  schools, 
so  far  from  appearing  to  uplift  them,  appears 
to  be  without  any  appreciable  beneficial  effect 
upon  their  morals  or  their  standing  as  citizens. 
But  more  than  this;  universally,  they  report  a 
general  depravity  and  retrogression  of  the  Ne 
groes  at  large  in  sections  in  which  they  are  left 
to  themselves,  closely  resembling  a  reversion  to 
barbarism. 


THE  SOUTHERNER'S   PROBLEM        81 

It  is  commonly  assumed  that  progress,  as  ap 
plied  to  a  class  or  a  race,  signifies  some  advance 
in  moral  standing,  or,  at  least,  some  improve 
ment  in  the  elements  of  character  on  which  mo 
rality  is  based. 

It  is  unfortunate  that  the  statistics  in  the  field 
of  morality  cannot  be  obtained;  but  in  this  field, 
as  in  others,  the  testimony  of  those  who  have 
had  the  best  opportunities  for  observation  is 
all  one  way.  Southerners  of  every  class  and 
calling,  without  exception,  bear  witness  to  the 
depressing  fact  that,  leaving  out  the  small  up 
per  fraction,  the  Negro  race  has  not  advanced 
at  all  in  morality. 

Unhappily,  the  fountain  is  tainted  at  the 
source.  The  great  body  of  the  race  have 
scarcely  any  notion  of  the  foundation  principles 
of  pure  family  life.  They  appear  not  only  to 
have  no  idea  of  morality,  but  to  lack  any  in 
stinct  upon  which  such  an  idea  can  be  founded. 
It  is  usually  charged  that  slavery  was  responsi 
ble  for  the  absence  of  morality  throughout  the 
race.  Some  of  the  Negro  writers  even  speak 
of  "  the  ancient  African  chastity  "  having  been 
debauched  by  slavery.  Doubtless,  during  sla 
very  there  was  a  sufficient  amount  of  immoral 
ity  to  be  the  basis  for  almost  any  reasonable 


82  THE  NEGRO: 

charge,  yet  study  of  the  question  has  convinced 
at  least  one  investigator  that  the  illicit  relations 
between  the  two  races  during  the  period  of  sla 
very  have  probably  been  greatly  exaggerated. 
He  has  come  to  believe  further  that  while  illicit 
intercourse  between  the  two  races  is  less  and, 
perhaps,  markedly  less  now  than  it  was  during 
the  period  of  slavery,  the  immorality  of  the 
great  body  of  the  Negro  race  has  increased  since 
that  time.  That  this  immorality  exists  is  the 
testimony  not  only  of  the  whites,  but  also  of 
members  of  the  race  who  have,  with  an  open 
mind,  made  a  study  of  the  conditions  of  their 
people.  Perhaps  the  most  remarkable  study  of 
the  Negro  which  has  appeared  is  the  book  en 
titled,  "  The  American  Negro,"  by  William 
Hannibal  Thomas,  of  Massachusetts.  No  in 
considerable  part  of  its  value  is  owing  to  the 
fact  that  the  author,  a  free  colored  man,  has  had 
both  the  power  to  observe  closely  and  the  cour 
age  to  record  boldly  the  results  of  his  observa 
tions.  In  the  chapter  on  "  Moral  Lapses,"  the 
author  says :  "  All  who  know  the  Negro  recog 
nize,  however,  that  the  chief  and  overpowering 
element  in  his  make-up  is  an  imperious  sexual 
impulse  which,  aroused  at  the  slightest  incentive, 
sweeps  aside  all  restraints  in  the  pursuit  of  phys- 


THE  SOUTHERNER'S   PROBLEM        83 

ical  gratification.  We  may  say  now  that  this 
element  of  Negro  character  constitutes  the 
main  incitement  to  degeneracy  of  the  race 
and  is  the  chief  hindrance  to  its  social  up 
lifting. 

"  The  Negro's  ethical  code  sternly  repro 
bates  dancing,  theatre  attendance,  and  all  social 
games  of  chance.  It  does  not,  however,  forbid 
lying,  rum-drinking,  or  stealing.  Furthermore, 
a  man  may  trail  his  loathsome  form  into  the 
sanctity  of  private  homes,  seduce  a  wife,  sister, 
or  daughter  with  impunity,  and  be  the  father 
of  a  score  of  illegitimate  children  by  as  many 
mothers,  and  yet  be  a  disciple  of  holiness  and 
honored  with  public  confidence." 

His  chapter  on  this  subject  will  be,  to  those 
unfamiliar  with  it,  a  terrible  exposure  of  the 
depravity  of  the  Negroes  in  their  social  life, 
but  it  is  only  what  those  who  have  studied  the 
subject  know. 

The  curse  of  this  frightful  immorality  is  over 
the  church  and  the  school,  and  gives  no  evidence 
of  abatement.  4f 

'  The  simple  truth,"  admits  the  writer  al 
ready  quoted,  "  is  that  there  is  going  on  side 
by  side  in  the  Negro  people  a  minimum  prog 
ress  with  a  maximum  regress."  "  It  is,  there- 


J 


84  THE  NEGRO: 

fore,"  he  says,*  "  almost  impossible  to  find  a 
person  of  either  sex  over  fifteen  years  of  age 
who  has  not  had  carnal  intercourse. "  And 
again,f  he  declares:  "  Marital  immoralities, 
however,  are  not  confined  to  the  poor,  the  igno 
rant,  and  the  degraded  among  the  freed  people, 
but  are  equally  common  among  those  who  pre 
sume  to  be  educated  and  refined." 

Unfortunately  for  the  race,  this  depressing 
view  is  borne  out  by  the  increase  of  crime 
among  them;  by  the  increase  of  superstition, 
with  its  black  trail  of  unnamable  immorality 
and  vice ;  by  the  homicides  and  murders,  and  by 
the  outbreak  and  growth  of  the  brutal  crime 
which  has  chiefly  brought  about  the  frightful 
crime  of  lynching  which  stains  the  good  name 
of  the  South  and  has  spread  northward  with 
the  spread  of  the  Negro  ravisher. 

It  is  a  fact,  which  no  one  will  deny,  that  the 
crime  of  rape  was  substantially  unknown  dur 
ing  the  period  of  slavery,  and  was  hardly  known 
during  the  first  years  of  freedom :  it  is  the  fatal 
product  of  new  conditions.  Twenty-five  years 
ago  women  in  the  South  went  unattended,  with 
no  more  fear  of  attack  than  they  have  in  New 
England.  To-day,  no  woman  in  the  South  goes 
*  Page  183.  f  Page  184. 


THE  SOUTHERNER'S   PROBLEM        85 

alone  upon  the  highway  out  of  sight  of  white 
men,  except  on  necessity,  and  no  man  leaves  his 
women  alone  in  his  house  if  he  can  help  it. 
Over  500  white  women  and  children  have  been 
assaulted  in  the  South  by  Negroes  within  that 
time. 

This  is  a  terrible  showing,  and  the  most  de 
pressing  part  of  it  is  the  failure  of  the  Negroes 
generally  to  address  themselves  to  the  moral 
improvement  of  their  race. 

None  of  this  will  affect  the  views  of  the  poli 
tician  or  the  doctrinaire,  but  it  should,  at  least, 
give  food  for  thought  among  the  rest  of  our 
people,  that  these  views  are  held  almost  uni 
versally  by  the  intelligent  white  people  of  the 
South,  irrespective  of  their  different  political  or 
religious  views;  irrespective  of  their  social  or 
their  business  standing;  and  further,  that,  sub 
stantially,  these  views  are  held  by  nearly  all  out 
siders  who  go  and  see  enough  of  the  South  to 
secure  opportunities  for  close  and  general  obser 
vation;  and,  precisely  as  their  experience  is 
broad  and  their  means  of  information  extensive, 
their  views  approximate  those  held  by  the  white 
residents. 


CHAPTER    IV 

THE    LYNCHING    OF    NEGROES—ITS    CAUSE 
AND   ITS   PREVENTION* 

IN    dealing   with   this    question   the   writer 
wishes  to  be  understood  as  speaking  not 
of  the  respectable  and  law-abiding  ele 
ment  among  the  Negroes,   who  unfortunately 
are  so  often  confounded  with  the  body  of  the 
race  from  which  come  most  of  the  malefactors. 

*  An  interesting  paper  on  "Lynch  Law,"  by  Albert 
Matthews,  of  Boston,  was  published  in  The  Nation,  Decem 
ber  4,  1902.  Mr.  Matthews,  after  giving  the  numerous 
alleged  derivations  of  the  term,  and  reciting  a  score  or  so 
of  instances  in  which  "Lynch  Law"  had  been  applied  (his 
first  reference  being  to  Wirt's  Life  of  Patrick  Henry,  1818, 
page  372),  states  his  conclusions,  as  follows : 

"From  this  evidence  and  from  other  material  in  my  pos 
session,  it  appears  that  the  original  term  was  "Lynch's 
Law";  that  this  was  soon  shortened  to  "Lynch  (or  lynch) 
Law,"  and  then  to  "Lynch";  that  originally  lynch  law 
was  a  whipping  or  other  personal  chastisement;  that  lynch 
law  originally  obtained  only  in  the  border  settlements, 
where  the  administration  of  justice  either  was,  or  was  sup 
posed  to  be  uncertain;  that  in  the  early  days  of  lynch  law, 

86 


THE  SOUTHERNER'S   PROBLEM        87 

To  say  that  Negroes  furnish  most  of  the  ravish- 
ers  is  not  to  say  that  all  Negroes  are  rapists. 

The  crime  of  lynching  in  this  country  has,  at 
one  time  or  another,  become  so  frequent  that  it 
has  aroused  the  interest  of  the  whole  people, 
and  has  even  arrested  the  attention  of  people  in 
other  countries.  It  has  usually  been  caused  by 
the  boldness  with  which  crime  was  committed 
and  the  inefficiency  of  the  law  in  dealing 
with  lawbreakers  through  its  regular  forms. 
Such,  for  instance,  were  the  acts  of  the  Vigi- 

innocent  persons  were  sometimes  punished,  and  suits  for 
damages  were  by  no  means  unknown;  that,  about  1830, 
writers  regarded  the  practice  as  on  the  wane  and  likely  soon 
to  disappear  altogether;  that  before  about  1835  the  victims 
of  lynch  law  were  generally  whites,  occasionally  Indians, 
but  never  Negroes;  that  soon  after  1830  a  revival  of  lynch 
law  took  place,  due  to  the  anti-slavery  agitation,  and  the 
practice  spread  throughout  the  country;  that  between  1830 
and  1840  the  term  "lynch"  underwent  a  change  in  meaning 
and  "to  lynch"  began  to  acquire  the  sense  of  to  put  to 
death;  that  during  the  same  period  Negroes  were  first 
lynched;  that  about  1835,  we  first  hear  of  "Judge  Lynch"; 
that  in  recent  years,  lynching  has  been  confined  largely, 
but  by  no  means  wholly,  to  Negroes  in  the  South  and  West. 
It  further  appears  that  there  is  a  direct  historical  connection 
between  the  killing  of  a  Negro  in  a  highly  civilized  com 
munity  in  1902  and  the  whipping  of  a  white  man  along  the 
frontiers  in  1817.  Step  by  step,  the  illegal  whippings  of 
1817  have  led  to  the  illegal  burnings  alive  of  1902.  In 
short,  the  more  civilized  the  country  has  become,  the  more 
brutal  has  been  the  punishment  meted  out  under  lynch  law." 


88  THE  NEGRO: 

lantes  in  California  in  the  old  days,  and  such 
have  been  the  acts  of  the  Vigilantes  in  other 
sections  of  the  country  at  times.  In  these  cases, 
there  has  always  been  a  form  of  trial,  which, 
however  hasty,  was  conclusive  on  the  essential 
points  of  the  commission  of  the  crime,  the  iden 
tification  of  the  prisoner,  the  sentence  of  "Judge 
Lynch  " — that  is,  of  the  mob — and  the  orderly 
execution  of  that  sentence.  And,  in  such  cases, 
most  persons  who  are  well-informed  as  to  all 
the  conditions  and  circumstances  have  found 
some  justification  for  this  "  wild  justice." 

Lynching,  however,  has  never  before  been 
so  common,  nor  has  it  existed  over  so  extended 
a  region  as  of  late  years  in  the  Southern  States. 
And  it  has  aroused  more  feeling  outside  of  that 
section  than  was  aroused  formerly  by  the  work 
of  the  Vigilantes.  This  feeling  has  undoubtedly 
been  due  mainly  to  the  belief  that  the  lynch 
ing  has  been  directed  almost  exclusively  against 
the  Negroes;  though  a  part  has,  perhaps,  come 
from  the  supposition  that  the  laws  were  entirely 
effective,  and  that,  consequently,  the  lynching 
of  Negroes  has  been  the  result  of  irrational  hos 
tility  or  of  wanton  cruelty.  Thus,  the  matter 
is,  to  some  extent,  complicated  by  a  latent  idea 
that  it  has  a  political  complexion. 


THE  SOUTHERNER'S   PROBLEM        89 

This  is  the  chief  ground  of  complaint  in  the 
utterances  of  the  Negroes  themselves  and  also 
in  those  of  a  considerable  part  of  the  outside 
press.  And,  indeed,  for  a  good  while,  the  lynch 
ing  of  Negroes  appeared  to  be  confined  to  the 
South,  though  lynching  of  whites  was  by  no 
means  the  monopoly  of  that  section,  as  may  be 
recalled  by  those  familiar  with  the  history  of 
Indiana  and  some  of  the  other  Northwestern 
States. 

Of  late,  however,  several  revolting  instances 
of  lynching  of  Negroes  in  its  most  dreadful 
form:  burning  at  the  stake,  have  occurred  in 
regions  where  hitherto  such  forms  of  barbar 
ous  punishment  have  been  unknown;  and  the 
time  appears  to  be  ripe  for  some  efficient  con 
cert  of  action,  to  eradicate  what  is  recognized 
by  cool  heads  as  a  blot  on  our  good  name  and 
a  serious  menace  to  our  civilization. 

In  discussing  the  means  to  put  an  end  to  this 
barbarity,  the  first  essential  is  that  the  matter 
shall  be  clearly  and  thoroughly  understood. 

The  ignorance  shown  by  much  of  the  discus 
sion  that  has  grown  out  of  these  lynchings 
would  appear  to  justify  plain  speaking. 

All  thoughtful  men  know  that  respect  for 
law  is  the  basic  principle  of  civilization,  and 


90  THE  NEGRO: 

are  agreed  as  to  the  evil  of  any  overriding  of 
the  law.  All  reasonable  men  know  that  the 
overriding  of  law  readily  creates  a  spirit  of 
lawlessness,  under  which  progress  is  retarded 
and  civilization  suffers  and  dwindles.  This  is 
as  clearly  recognized  at  the  South  as  at  the 
North.  To  overcome  this  conviction  and  stir 
up  rational  men  to  a  pitch  where  the  law  is 
trampled  under  foot,  the  officers  of  the  law  are 
attacked,  and  their  prisoners  taken  from  them 
and  executed,  there  must  be  some  imperative 
cause. 

And  yet  the  record  of  such  overriding  of  law 
in  the  past  has  been  a  terrible  one. 

The  Chicago  Tribune  has  for  some  time  been 
collecting  statistics  on  the  subject  of  lynching, 
and  the  following  table  taken  from  that  paper, 
showing  the  number  of  lynchings  for  a  series  of 
years,  is  assumed  to  be  fairly  accurate : 


1886 

»«T 

n8 

l8q6  . 

•  •/  • 
.  .I?I 

1887 

.  M.  JU 

122 

l8Q7 

...166 

1888 

14.2 

v/  • 

l8o8 

.  .  127 

1889 

.176 

*«y«  . 

1800.  . 

.  .107 

1890 

127 

IQOO.  . 

.  .IIC 

1891 

1  02 

IQOI  . 

.  .13^ 

1892 

•  y* 
27C 

IQ02 

.  06 

180? 

•  •*•  j  3 

2OO 

IOO2 

.  .  .  .104 

109J  
1804... 

.  .  I  GO 

1004  (to  Oct.  27)  — 

.  86 

THE   SOUTHERNER'S   PROBLEM        91 


Total  lynchings. 


Whites. 


Negroes. 


In  the 
South. 


In  the 
North. 


1900 115  107         107  8 

IQOI 135          26  107  121  14 

1902 96         9          86          87          9 

1903  (to  Sept.  14) 76       13  63  66         10 

Causes  Assigned. 

1900.     1901.*  1902.1     1903. 

Murder 39  39          37          32 

Rape 18  19          19            8 

Attempted  rape 13  9  n             <j 

Race  prejudice 10  9             2             3 

Assaulting  whites 6  33 

Threats  to  kill 5  I 

Burglary 4  i 

Attempt  to  murder 4  9            4            6 

Informing 2 

Robbery    (theft) 2  12             I 

Complicity  in  murder. 2  6             3             5 

Rape  and  murder —  I 

Suspicion  of  murder 2  3             I             3 

Suspicion  of  robbery I 

No  offence I 

Arson 2  4 

Suspicion  of  arson I 

Aiding  escape  of  murderer I  I 

Insulting  a  white  woman —  I                         — 

Cattle  and  horse  stealing —  7             i 

Quarrel  over  profit-sharing —  5 

Suspicion  of  rape —  I 

Suspicion  of  rape  and  murder. .  —  I 

Unknown  offences 2  6                           4 

Mistaken  identity —  I             i             3 

K  In  1901  one  Indian  and  one  Chinaman  were  lynched, 
t  In  1902  one  Indian  was  lynched. 


THE  NEGRO: 


The  lynchings  in  the  various  States  and  Ter 
ritories  in  1900  were  as  follows: 


Alabama 8 

Arkansas 6 

California o 

Colorado 3 

Connecticut o 

Delaware o 

Florida 9 

Georgia 16 

Idaho o 

Illinois o 

Indiana 3 

Iowa o 

Kansas 2 

Kentucky i 

Louisiana 20 

Maine o 

Maryland I 

Massachusetts o 

Michigan o 

Minnesota o 

Mississippi 20 

Missouri 2 

Montana o 

Nebraska o 

New  Jersey o 

New  Hampshire o 


New  York o 

Nevada o 

North  Carolina 3 

North  Dakota o 

Ohio o 

Oregon o 

Pennsylvania o 

Rhode  Island o 

South  Carolina 2 

South  Dakota o 

Tennessee 7 

Texas 4 

Vermont o 

Virginia 6 

West  Virginia 2 

Wisconsin o 

Washington o 

Wyoming o 

Arizona o 

District  of  Columbia o 

New  Mexico o 

Utah o 

Indian  Territory o 

Oklahoma o 

Alaska. .  .  o 


From  these  tables  certain  facts  may  be  de 
duced.  The  first  is  that,  in  the  year  of  which 
an  analysis  is  given  (1900),  over  nine-tenths  of 
the  lynchings  occurred  in  the  South,  where  only 
about  one-third  of  the  population  of  the  coun- 


THE   SOUTHERNER'S   PROBLEM        93 

try  were,  but  where  nine-tenths  of  the  Negroes 
were;  secondly,  that,  of  these  lynchings,  about 
nine-tenths  were  of  Negroes  and  one-third  were 
in  the  three  States  where  the  Negroes  are  most 
numerous;  thirdly,  that,  while  the  lynchings  ap 
pear  to  be  diminishing  at  the  South,  the  ratio, 
at  least,  is  increasing  at  the  North.  Of  the 
lynchings  in  1903,  12  occurred  in  the  North 
and  92  in  the  South.  Of  the  total  number,  86 
were  Negroes,  17  were  whites,  and  i  a  China 
man.  Among  the  alleged  causes  were  murder, 
47 ;  criminal  assault,  1 1 ;  attempted  criminal  as 
sault,  10;  murderous  assault,  7;  "race  preju 
dice,"  5.  Of  those  in  1904  there  were  82 
Negroes  and  4  whites;  81  occurred  in  the  South 
and  5  in  the  North. 

It  further  appears  that,  though  after  the 
war  lynching  in  the  South  may  have  begun 
as  a  punishment  for  assault  on  white  women, 
it  has  extended  until  of  late  less  than  one- 
fourth  of  the  instances  are  for  this  crime, 
while  over  three-fourths  of  them  are  for  mur 
der,  attempts  at  murder,  or  some  less  heinous 
offence.  This  may  be  accounted  for,  in  part, 
by  the  fact  that  often  the  murders  in  the 
South  partake  somewhat  of  the  nature  of  race- 
conflicts. 


94  THE  NEGRO: 

Over  2,700  lynchings  in  eighteen  years,  with 
a  steady  increase  in  the  barbarity  of  the  method 
and  with  the  last  the  most  shameful  instance  of 
this  barbarity,  are  enough  to  stagger  the  mind. 
Either  we  are  relapsing  into  barbarism,  or  there 
is  some  terrific  cause  for  our  reversion  to  the 
methods  of  medievalism,  and  our  laws  are  in 
efficient  to  meet  it.  The  only  gleam  of  light  is 
that,  of  late  years,  the  number  appears  to  have 
diminished. 

To  get  at  the  remedy,  we  must  first  get  at 
the  cause. 

Although  in  early  times  there  were  occasional 
assaults  and  even  some  burnings  at  the  stake 
these  outrages  appeared  to  have  passed  out  of 
fashion  and  time  was  when  the  crime  of  assault 
was  substantially  unknown  throughout  the 
South.  Though  criminal  assaults  had  been 
sufficiently  common  at  one  time  for  many  of 
the  States  to  adopt  laws  of  Draconian  severity 
relating  to  them,  yet  during  the  later  period  of 
slavery,  the  crime  of  rape  did  not  exist,  nor  did 
it  exist  to  any  considerable  extent  for  some  years 
after  emancipation.*  During  the  war  the  men 
were  away  in  the  army,  and  the  Negroes  were 

*  For  an  interesting  study  of  the  early  history  of  lynching 
and  its  causes,  see  note,  p.  86. 


THE  SOUTHERNER'S   PROBLEM        95 

the  loyal  guardians  of  the  women  and  children. 
On  isolated  plantations  and  in  lonely  neigh 
borhoods,  women  were  as  secure  as  in  the  streets 
of  Boston  or  New  York,  indeed,  were  more 
secure. 

Then  came  the  period  and  process  of  Recon 
struction,  with  its  teachings.  Among  these  was 
the  teaching  that  the  Negro  was  the  equal  of 
the  white,  that  the  white  was  his  enemy,  and 
that  he  must  assert  his  equality.  The  growth 
of  the  idea  was  a  gradual  one  in  the  Negro's 
mind.  This  was  followed  by  a  number  of  cases 
where  members  of  the  Negro  militia  ravished 
white  women;  in  some  instances  in  the  presence 
of  their  families.* 

The  result  of  the  hostility  between  the  South 
ern  whites  and  Government  at  that  time  was 
to  throw  the  former  upon  reliance  on  their  own 
acts  for  their  defence  or  revenge,  with  a  conse 
quent  training  in  lawless  punishment  of  acts 
which  should  have  been  punished  by  law.  And 
here  lynching,  in  its  post-bellum  stage,  had  its 
evil  origin.f 

*  For  outrages  in  Arkansas,  see  "  Brooks-Baxter  War." 

t  Mr.  Matthews  points  out  that  though  rape  existed  and 

was  frequently  legislated  against  during  the  Colonial  period, 

he  cannot  find  between  1676  and  1825  a  single  instance  of 

the  illegal  punishment  of  the  crime. 


96  THE  NEGRO: 

It  was  suggested  some  time  ago,  in  a  thought 
ful  paper  read  by  Professor  Wilcox,  of  Wash 
ington,  that  a  condition  something  like  that 
which  exists  in  the  South  at  present,  had  its  rise 
in  France  during  the  religious  wars. 

The  first  instance  of  rape,  outside  of  these 
attacks  by  armed  Negroes,  and  of  consequent 
lynching,  that  attracted  the  attention  of  the 
country  after  the  war  was  a  case  which  occurred 
in  Mississippi,  where  the  teaching  of  equality 
and  of  violence  found  one  of  its  most  fruitful 
fields.  A  Negro  dragged  a  woman  down  into 
the  woods  and,  tying  her,  kept  her  bound  there 
a  prisoner  for  several  days,  when  he  butchered 
her.  He  was  caught  and  was  lynched. 

With  the  resumption  of  local  power  by  the 
whites  came  the  temporary  and  partial  ending 
of  the  crimes  of  assault  and  of  lynching. 

As  the  old  relation,  which  had  survived  even 
the  strain  of  Reconstruction,  dwindled  with  the 
passing  of  the  old  generation  from  the  stage, 
and  the  "  New  Issue  "  with  the  new  teaching 
took  its  place,  the  crime  broke  out  again  with 
renewed  violence.  The  idea  of  equality  began 
to  percolate  more  extensively  among  the  Ne 
groes.  In  evidence  of  it  is  the  fact  that  since 
the  assaults  began  again  they  have  been  chiefly 


THE   SOUTHERNER'S   PROBLEM        97 

directed  against  the  plainer  order  of  people,  in 
stances  of  attacks  on  women  of  the  upper  class, 
though  not  unknown,  being  of  rare  occurrence.* 

Conditions  in  the  South  render  the  commis 
sion  of  this  crime  peculiarly  easy.  The  white 
population  is  sparse,  the  forests  are  extensive, 
the  officers  of  the  law  distant  and  difficult  to 
reach;  but,  above  all,  the  Negro  population 
have  appeared  inclined  to  condone  the  fact  of 
mere  assault. 

Twenty-five  years  ago,  women  went  unac 
companied  and  unafraid  throughout  the  South, 
as  they  still  go  throughout  the  North.  To-day, 
no  white  woman,  or  girl,  or  female  child,  goes 
alone  out  of  sight  of  the  house  except  on  neces 
sity;  and  no  man  leaves  his  wife  alone  in  his 
house,  if  he  can  help  it.  Cases  have  occurred 
of  assault  and  murder  in  broad  day,  within 
sight  and  sound  of  the  victim's  home.  Indeed, 
an  instance  occurred  not  a  great  while  ago  in 
the  District  of  Columbia,  within  a  hundred 
yards  of  a  fashionable  drive,  when,  about  three 
o'clock  of  a  bright  June  day,  a  young  girl  was 
attacked  within  sight  and  sound  of  her  house, 

*  It  is  significant  that,  on  large  plantations  where  the 
Negroes,  though  in  large  numbers,  are  still  in  the  position 
of  old  plantation  servants,  the  crime  of  assault  is  almost 
unknown. 


98  THE  NEGRO: 

and  when  she  screamed  her  throat  was  cut.  So 
near  to  her  home  was  the  spot  that  her  mother 
and  an  officer,  hearing  her  cries,  reached  her 
before  life  was  extinct. 

For  a  time,  the  ordinary  course  of  the  law 
was,  in  the  main,  relied  on  to  meet  the  trouble ; 
but  it  was  found  that,  notwithstanding  the  in 
evitable  infliction  of  the  death-penalty,  several 
evils  resulted  therefrom.  The  chief  one  was 
that  the  ravishing  of  women,  instead  of  dimin 
ishing,  steadily  increased.  The  criminal,  under 
the  ministrations  of  his  preachers,  usually  pro 
fessed  to  have  "  got  religion,"  and  from  the 
shadow  of  the  gallows  called  on  his  friends  to 
follow  him  to  glory.  So  that  the  punishment 
lost  to  these  emotional  people  much  of  its  de 
terrent  force,  especially  where  the  real  sym 
pathy  of  the  race  was  mainly  with  the  criminal 
rather  than  with  his  victim.  Another  evil  was 
the  dreadful  necessity  of  calling  on  the  innocent 
victim,  who,  if  she  survived,  as  she  rarely  did, 
was  already  bowed  to  the  earth  by  shame,  to 
relate  in  public  the  story  of  the  assault — an  or 
deal  which  was  worse  than  death.  Yet  another 
was  the  constant  delay  in  the  execution  of  the' 
law.  With  these,  however,  was  one  other 
which,  perhaps,  did  more  than  all  the  rest 


THE  SOUTHERNER'S   PROBLEM        99 

taken  together  to  wrest  the  trial  and  punish 
ment  from  the  courts  and  carry  them  out  by 
mob-violence.  This  was  the  unnamable  bru 
tality  with  which  the  causing  crime  was,  in 
nearly  every  case,  attended.  The  death  of  the 
victim  of  the  ravisher  was  generally  the  least  of 
the  attendant  horrors.  In  Texas,  in  Mississippi, 
in  Georgia,  in  Kentucky,  in  Colorado,  as  later 
in  Delaware,  the  facts  in  the  case  were  so 
unspeakable  that  they  have  never  been  put  in 
print.  They  simply  could  not  be  put  in  print. 
It  is  these  unnamable  horrors  which  have  out 
raged  the  minds  of  those  who  live  in  regions 
where  they  have  occurred,  and  where  they  may 
at  any  time  occur  again,  and,  upsetting  reason, 
have  swept  from  their  bearings  cool  men  and 
changed  them  into  madmen,  drunk  with  fury 
and  the  lust  of  revenge. 

Not  unnaturally,  such  barbarity  as  burning 
at  the  stake  has  shocked  the  sense  of  the  rest 
of  the  country,  and,  indeed,  of  the  world.  But 
it  is  well  for  the  rest  of  the  country,  and  for 
the  world,  to  know  that  it  has  also  shocked  the 
sense  of  the  South,  and,  in  their  calmer  mo 
ments,  even  the  sense  of  those  men  who,  in  their 
frenzy,  have  been  guilty  of  it.  Only,  a  deeper 
shock  than  even  this  is  at  the  bottom  of  their 


THE  NEGRO: 

ferocious  rage — the  shock  which  comes  from 
the  ravishing  and  butchery  of  their  women  and 
children. 

It  is  not  necessary  to  be  an  apologist  for  bar 
barity  because  one  states  with  bluntness  the 
cause.  The  stern  underlying  principle  of  the 
people  who  commit  these  barbarities  is  one  that 
has  its  root  deep  in  the  basic  passions  of  hu 
manity;  the  determination  to  put  an  end  to  the 
ravishing  of  their  women  by  an  inferior  race, 
or  by  any  race,  no  matter  what  the  consequence. 

For  a  time,  a  speedy  execution  by  hanging 
was  the  only  mode  of  retribution  resorted  to 
by  the  lynchers;  then,  when  this  failed  of  its 
purpose,  a  more  savage  method  was  essayed, 
born  of  a  savage  fury  at  the  failure  of  the  first, 
and  a  stern  resolve  to  strike  a  deeper  terror  into 
those  whom  the  other  method  had  failed  to 
awe. 

The  following  may  serve  as  an  illustration. 
Ten  or  twelve  years  ago,  the  writer  lectured 
one  afternoon  in  the  early  spring  in  a  town 
in  the  cotton-belt  of  Texas — one  of  the  pretti 
est  towns  in  the  Southwest.  The  lecture  was 
delivered  in  the  Court-house.  The  writer  was 
introduced  by  a  gentleman  who  had  been  a 
member  of  the  Confederate  Cabinet  and  a 


THE  SOUTHERNER'S   PROBLEM      101 

Senator  of  the  United  States,  and  the  audience 
was  composed  of  refined  and  cultured  people, 
representing,  perhaps,  every  State  from  Maine 
to  Texas. 

Two  days  later,  the  papers  contained  the  ac 
count  of  the  burning  at  the  stake  of  a  Negro 
in  this  town.  He  had  picked  up  a  little  girl  of 
five  or  six  years  of  age  on  the  street  where  she 
was  playing  in  front  of  her  home,  and  carried 
her  off,  telling  her  that  her  mother  had  sent 
him  for  her;  and  when  she  cried,  he  had  soothed 
her  with  candy  which,  with  deliberate  and  devil 
ish  prevision,  he  had  bought  for  the  purpose. 
When  the  child  was  found,  she  was  unrecogniz 
able.  Her  little  body  was  broken  and  man 
gled  and  he  had  cut  her  throat  and  thrown  her 
into  a  ditch. 

A  strong  effort  was  made  to  save  the  wretch 
for  the  law,  but  without  avail:  the  people  had 
reverted  to  the  primal  law  of  personal  and  aw 
ful  vengeance.  Farmers  came  from  fifty  miles 
around  to  see  that  vengeance  was  exacted.  They 
had  resolved  to  strike  terror  into  the  breasts  of 
all  who  might  contemplate  so  hideous  a  crime, 
so  that  such  a  thing  should  never  occur  again. 

This  was,  perhaps,  the  second  or  third  in 
stance  of  burning  in  the  country  after  the  war. 


102  THE  NEGRO: 

Of  late,  lynching  at  the  stake  has  spread  be 
yond  the  region  where  it  has  such  reason  for 
existence  as  may  be  given  by  the  conditions  that 
prevail  in  the  South.  Three  frightful  instances 
of  burning  at  the  stake  have  occurred  recently 
in  Northern  States,  in  communities  where  some 
of  these  conditions  were  partly  wanting.  The 
horror  of  the  main  crime  of  lynching  was  in 
creased,  in  two  of  the  cases,  by  a  concerted 
attack  on  a  large  element  of  the  Negro  popula 
tion  which  was  wholly  innocent.  Even  unof 
fending  Negroes  were  driven  from  their  homes, 
a  consequence  which  has  never  followed  in  the 
South,  where  it  might  seem  there  was  more 
occasion  for  it. 

It  thus  appears  that  the  original  crime,  and 
also  the  consequent  one  in  its  most  brutal  form, 
are  not  confined  to  the  South,  and,  possibly,  are 
only  more  frequent  there  because  of  the  greater 
number  of  Negroes  in  that  section.  The  deep 
racial  instincts  are  not  limited  by  geographical 
bounds. 

These  last-mentioned  lynchings  were  so  fe 
rocious,  and  so  unwarranted  by  any  such  neces 
sity,  real  or  fancied,  as  may  be  thought  to  exist 
at  the  South  by  reason  of  the  frequency  of  as 
sault  and  the  absence  of  a  strong  police  force, 


THE  SOUTHERNER'S   PROBLEM      103 

that  they  not  unnaturally  called  forth  almost 
universal  condemnation.     The  President  felt  it 
proper  to  write  an  open  letter,  commending  the 
action    of    the    Governor    of    Indiana    on    the 
proper  and  efficient  exercise  of  his  authority  to 
uphold  the  law  and  restore  order  in  his  State. 
But  who  has  ever  thought  it  necessary  to  com 
mend  the   Governors   of   the   Southern   States 
under  similar  circumstances?     The  militia  of 
some  of  the  Southern  States  are  almost  veter 
ans,  so  frequently  have  they  been  called  on  to 
protect  wretches  whose  crimes  stank  in  the  nos 
trils  of  all  decent  men.     The  recent  shameful 
instance  where  an  officer  is  charged  with  having 
connived  with  the  mob  is  the  single  exception  to 
fidelity  that  can  be  recalled,  and  even  in  that  case 
the  men  showed  a  fidelity  in  marked  contrast 
to  that  weakness.     The  Governor  of  Virginia 
boasted,    a    few   years    ago,    that   no   lynching 
should  take  place  during  his  incumbency,   and 
he  nearly  made  good  his  boast;  though,  to  do 
so,  he  had  to  call  out  at  one  time  or  another 
almost  the  entire  military  force  of  the  State. 

Editorials  in  some  of  the  Eastern  papers  note 
with  astonishment  recent  instances  where  law- 
officers  in  the  South  have  protected  their  pris 
oners  or  eluded  a  mob.  The  writers  of  these 


104  THE  NEGRO: 

editorials  know  so  little  of  the  South  that  one 
is  scarcely  surprised  at  their  ignorance.  But 
men  are  hanged  by  law  for  this  crime  of  as 
sault  every  few  months  in  some  State  in  the 
South.  A  few  years  ago,  Sheriff  Smith,  of  Bir 
mingham,  protected  a  murderer  at  the  cost  of 
many  lives;  a  little  later,  Mayor  Prout,  of  Ro- 
anoke,  defended  with  all  his  power  a  Negro 
ravisher  and  murderer,  and,  though  the  mob 
finally  succeeded  in  their  aim,  six  men  were  killed 
by  the  guards  before  the  jail  was  carried.  These 
are  only  two  of  the  many  instances  in  which 
brave  and  faithful  officers  have,  at  the  risk  of 
their  lives,  defended  their  charges  against  that 
most  terrible  of  all  assailants — a  determined 
mob.* 

For  a  time,  the  assaults  by  Negroes  were  con 
fined  to  young  women  who  were  caught  alone 
in  solitary  and  secluded  places.  The  company 
even  of  a  child  was  sufficient  to  protect  them. 
Then  the  ravishers  grew  bolder,  and  attacks 
followed  on  women  when  they  were  in  com 
pany.  And  then,  not  content  with  this,  the  rav- 

*  The  following  table  is  from  the  Chicago  Tribune.  The 
number  of  legal  executions  in  1900  was  1 18,  as  compared  with 
131  in  1899,  109  in  1898,  128  in  1897,  122  in  1896,  132  in 
1895,  132  in  1894,  126  in  1893,  and  107  in  1892.  The  ex- 


THE  SOUTHERNER'S   PROBLEM      105 


ishers  began  to  attack  women  in  their  own 
homes.  Sundry  instances  of  this  have  occurred 
within  the  last  few  years.  As  an  illustration, 
may  be  cited  the  notorious  case  of  Samuel  Hose, 

ecutions  in  the  several  States  and  Territories  were  in  1900 
as  follows: 


Alabama 4 

Arkansas o 

California 5 

Colorado o 

Connecticut I 

Delaware o 

Florida i 

Georgia 14 

Idaho 2 

Illinois o 

Indiana o 

Iowa o 

Kansas o 

Kentucky o 

Louisiana 6 

Maine o 

Maryland 3 

Massachusetts o 

Michigan o 

Minnesota o 

Mississippi I 

Missouri 3 

Montana 3 

Nebraska o 

New  Jersey 4 

New  Hampshire o 


New  York 3 

Nevada o 

North  Carolina 9 

North  Dakota i 

Ohio i 

Oregon I 

Pennsylvania 15 

Rhode  Island o 

South  Carolina 3 

South  Dakota o 

Tennessee 4 

Texas 18 

Vermont o 

Virginia 7 

West  Virginia o 

Wisconsin o 

Wyoming o 

Washington 2 

Arizona 4 

District  of  Columbia 3 

New  Mexico o 

Utah o 

Indian  Territory o 

Oklahoma o 

Alaska..  .   o 


There  were  80  hanged  in  the  South  and  39  in  the  North, 
of  whom  60  were  whites,  58  were  blacks,  and  one  a  China- 


io6  THE  NEGRO: 

who,  after  making  a  bet  with  a  Negro  preacher 
that  he  could  have  access  to  a  white  woman, 
went  into  a  farmer's  house  while  the  family, 
father,  mother,  and  child,  were  at  supper; 
brained  the  man  with  his  axe;  threw  the  child 
into  a  corner  with  a  violence  which  knocked  it 
senseless,  ravished  the  wife  and  mother  with  un- 
namable  horrors,  and  finally  butchered  her.  He 
was  caught  and  was  burned. 

Another  instance,  only  less  appalling,  oc 
curred  twTo  years  ago  in  Lynchburg,  Va., 
where  the  colored  janitor  of  a  white  female 
school,  who  had  been  brought  up  and  promoted 
by  the  Superintendent  of  Schools,  and  was  re 
garded  as  a  shining  example  of  what  education 
might  accomplish  with  his  race,  entered  the 
house  of  a  respectable  man  one  morning,  after 
the  husband,  a  foreman  in  a  factory,  had  gone 
to  his  work;  ravished  the  wife,  and,  then  put 
ting  his  knee  on  her  breast,  coolly  cut  her  throat 
as  he  might  have  done  that  of  a  calf.  There  was 
no  attempt  at  lynching;  but  the  Governor,  re 
man.  The  crimes  for  which  they  were  executed  were: 
murder,  113;  rape,  5;  arson,  I.  Thus,  of  the  119  hangings, 
about  two-thirds  (80)  were  in  the  South  and  one-third  (39) 
in  the  North;  about  one-half  (60)  of  the  entire  number 
were  of  whites,  and  one-half  (58)  were  of  blacks.  So,  the 
South  appears  to  have  done  its  part  in  the  matter  of  pun 
ishing  by  law  as  well  as  by  violence. 


THE   SOUTHERNER'S   PROBLEM      107 

solved  to  preserve  the  good  name  of  the  Com 
monwealth,  felt  it  necessary  to  order  out  two 
regiments  of  soldiers,  in  which  course  he  was 
sustained  by  the  entire  sentiment  of  the  State. 

These  cases  were  neither  worse  nor  better 
than  many  of  those  which  have  occurred  in  the 
South  in  the  last  twenty  years,  and  in  that  pe 
riod  hundreds  of  women  and  a  number  of  chil 
dren  have  been  ravished  and  slain. 

Now,  how  is  this  crime  of  assault  to  be 
stopped?  For  stopped  it  must  be,  and  stopped 
it  will  be,  whatever  the  cost.  One  proposition 
is  that  separation  of  the  races,  complete  separa 
tion  by  the  deportation  of  the  Negroes,  is 
the  only  remedy.  The  theory,  though  sustained 
by  many  thoughtful  men,  appears  Utopian. 
Colonization  has  been  the  dream  of  certain 
philanthropists  for  a  hundred  years.  And, 
meantime,  the  Negroes  have  increased  from 
less  than  a  million  to  nine  millions.  They 
will  never  be  deported ;  not  because  we  have  not 
the  money,  for  an  amount  equal  to  that  spent 
in  pensions  during  three  years  would  pay  the 
expenses  of  such  deportation,  and  an  amount 
equal  to  that  paid  in  six  years  would  set  them 
up  in  a  new  country.  But  the  Negroes  have 


108  THE  NEGRO: 

rights;  many  of  them  are  estimable  citizens;  and 
even  the  great  body  of  them,  when  well  regu 
lated,  are  valuable  laborers.  It  might,  there 
fore,  as  well  be  assumed  that  this  plan  will 
never  be  carried  out,  unless  the  occasion  be 
comes  so  imperative  that  all  other  rights  give 
way  to  the  supreme  right  of  necessity. 

It  is  plain,  then,  that  we  must  deal  with  the 
natter  in  a  more  practicable  manner,  accepting 
conditions  as  they  are,  and  applying  to  them 
legal  methods  which  will  be  effective.  Lynch 
ing  does  not  end  ravishing,  and  that  is  the  prime 
necessity.  Most  right-thinking  men  are  agreed 
as  to  this.  Indeed,  lynching,  through  lacking 
the  supreme  principle  of  law,  the  deliberateness 
from  which  is  supposed  to  come  the  certainty 
of  identification,  fails  utterly  to  meet  the  neces 
sity  of  the  case  even  as  a  deterrent,  though  it 
must  be  admitted  that  there  are  a  respectable 
number  of  thoughtful  men  who  dissent  from 
this  view.  The  growth  of  a  sentiment  which, 
at  least,  condones  lynching  as  a  punishment  for 
assaults  on  women  is  a  significant  and  distress 
ing  fact.  Not  only  have  assaults  occurred 
again  and  again  in  the  same  neighborhood 
where  lynching  has  followed  such  crime;  but,  a 
few  years  ago,  it  was  publicly  stated  that  a  Ne- 


THE   SOUTHERNER'S   PROBLEM      109 

gro  who  had  just  witnessed  a  lynching  for  this 
crime  actually  committed  an  assault  on  his  way 
home.  However  this  may  be,  lynching  as  a 
remedy  is  a  ghastly  failure;  and  its  brutalizing 
effect  on  the  community  is  incalculable. 

The  charge  that  is  often  made,  that  the  in 
nocent  are  sometimes  lynched,  has  little  founda 
tion.  The  rage  of  a  mob  is  not  directed  against 
the  innocent,  but  against  the  guilty;  and  its 
fury  would  not  be  satisfied  with  any  other  sac 
rifice  than  the  death  of  the  real  criminal.  Nor 
does  the  criminal  merit  any  consideration,  how 
ever  terrible  the  punishment.  The  real  injury 
is  to  the  perpetrators  of  the  crime  of  destroy 
ing  the  law,  and  to  the  community  in  which  the 
law  is  slain. 

It  is  pretty  generally  conceded  that  the 
"  law's  delay "  is  partly  responsible  for  the 
"  wild  justice  "  of  mob  vengeance,  and  this  has 
undoubtedly  been  the  cause  of  many  mobs.  But 
it  is  far  from  certain  if  any  change  in  the  meth 
ods  of  administration  of  law  will  effect  the  stop 
ping  of  lynching;  while  to  remedy  this  evil  we 
may  bring  about  a  greater  peril.  Trial  by  jury 
is  the  bed-rock  of  our  liberties,  and  the  inherent 
principle  of  such  trial  is  its  deliberateness.  It 
has  been  said  that  the  whole  purpose  of  the 


no  THE  NEGRO: 

Constitution  of  Great  Britain  is  that  twelve 
men  may  sit  in  the  jury-box.  The  methods  of 
the  law  may  well  be  reformed;  but  any  move 
ment  should  be  jealously  scanned  which  touches 
the  chief  bulwark  of  all  liberty. 

The  first  step,  then,  would  appear  to  be  the 
establishment  of  a  system  securing  a  reasonably 
prompt  trial  and  speedy  execution  by  law,  rather 
than  a  wholesale  revolution  of  the  existing 
system. 

Many  expedients  have  been  suggested;  some 
of  the  most  drastic  by  Northern  men.  One  of 
them  proposed,  not  long  since,  that  to  meet  the 
mob-spirit,  a  trial  somewhat  in  the  nature  of 
a  drum-head  court-martial  might  be  established 
by  law,  by  which  the  accused  may  be  tried  and, 
if  found  guilty,  executed  immediately.  Others 
have  proposed  as  a  remedy  emasculation  by 
law;  while  a  Justice  of  the  Supreme  Court  has 
recently  given  the  weight  of  his  personal  opin 
ion  in  favor  of  prompt  trial  and  the  abolish 
ment  of  appeals  in  such  cases.  Even  the  ter 
rible  suggestion  has  been  made  that  burning  at 
the  stake  might  again  be  legalized ! 

These  suggestions  testify  how  grave  the  mat 
ter  is  considered  to  be  by  those  who  make  them. 

But  none  of  these,  unless  it  be  the  one  relat- 


THE   SOUTHERNER'S   PROBLEM      in 

ing  to  emasculation,  is  more  than  an  expedient. 
The  trouble  lies  deeper.  The  crime  of  lynch 
ing  is  not  likely  to  cease  until  the  crime  of  rav 
ishing  and  murdering  women  and  children  is 
less  frequent  than  it  has  been  of  late.  And  this 
crime,  which  is  well-nigh  wholly  confined  to  the 
Negro  race,  will  not  greatly  diminish  until  the 
Negroes  themselves  take  it  in  hand  and  stamp 
it  out. 

From  recent  developments,  it  may  be  prop 
erly  inferred  that  the  absence  of  this  crime  dur 
ing  the  later  period  of  slavery  was  due  more  to 
the  feeling  among  the  Negroes  themselves  than 
to  any  repressive  measures  on  the  part  of  the 
whites.  The  Negro  had  the  same  animal  in 
stincts  in  slavery  that  he  exhibits  now;  the  pun 
ishment  that  follows  the  crime  now  is  quite  as 
certain,  as  terrible,  and  as  swift  as  it  could  have 
been  then.  So,  to  what  is  due  the  alarming  in 
crease  of  this  terrible  brutality? 

To  the  writer  it  appears  plain  that  it  is  due 
to  two  things :  first,  to  racial  antagonism  and 
to  the  talk  of  social  equality  that  inflames  the 
ignorant  Negro,  who  has  grown  up  unregulated 
and  undisciplined;  and,  secondly,  to  the  absence 
of  a  strong  restraining  public  opinion  among 
the  Negroes  of  any  class,  which  alone  can  extir- 


ii2  THE  NEGRO: 

pate  the  crime.  In  the  first  place,  the  Negro 
does  not  generally  believe  in  the  virtue  of  wom 
en.  It  is  beyond  his  experience.  He  does  not 
generally  believe  in  the  existence  of  actual  as 
sault.  It  is  beyond  his  comprehension.  In  the 
next  place,  his  passion,  always  his  controlling 
force,  is  now,  since  the  new  teaching,  for  the 
white  women.* 

That  there  are  many  Negroes  who  are  law- 
abiding  and  whose  influence  is  for  good,  no 
one  who  knows  the  worthy  members  of  the 
race — those  who  represent  the  better  element — 
will  deny.  But  while  there  are,  of  course,  not' 
able  exceptions,  they  are  not  often  of  the 
"  New  Issue,"  nor,  unhappily,  even  generally 
among  the  prominent  leaders:  those  who  pub 
lish  papers  and  control  conventions. 

As  the  crime  of  rape  of  late  years  had  its  bale 
ful  renascence  in  the  teaching  of  equality  and 
the  placing  of  power  in  the  ignorant  Negroes' 
hands,  so  its  perpetuation  and  increase  have  un 
doubtedly  been  due  in  large  part  to  the  same 
teaching.  The  intelligent  Negro  may  under 
stand  what  social  equality  truly  means,  but  to 
the  ignorant  and  brutal  young  Negro,  it  signi- 

*  See  "The  American    Negro,"    by    William    Hannibal 
Thomas,  pp.  65,  177. 


THE  SOUTHERNER'S   PROBLEM      113 

fies  but  one  thing:  the  opportunity  to  enjoy, 
equally  with  white  men,  the  privilege  of  cohabit 
ing  with  white  women.  This  the  whites  of  the 
South  understand;  and  if  it  were  understood 
abroad,  it  would  serve  to  explain  some  things 
which  have  not  been  understood  hitherto.  It 
will  explain,  in  part,  the  universal  and  furious 
hostility  of  the  South  to  even  the  least  sugges 
tion  of  social  equality. 

A  close  following  of  the  instances  of  rape 
and  lynching,  and  the  public  discussion  conse 
quent  thereon,  have  led  the  writer  to  the  painful 
realization  that  even  the  leaders  of  the  Negro 
race — at  least,  those  who  are  prominent  enough 
to  hold  conventions  and  write  papers  on  the 
subject — have  rarely,  by  act  or  word,  shown  a 
true  appreciation  of  the  enormity  of  the  crime 
of  ravishing  and  murdering  women.  Their  dis 
cussion  and  denunciation  have  been  almost  in 
variably  and  exclusively  devoted  to  the  crime 
of  lynching.  Underlying  most  of  their  pro 
tests  is  the  suggestion  that  the  victim  of  the 
mob  is  innocent  and  a  martyr.  Now  and  then, 
there  is  a  mild  generalization  on  the  evil  of  law- 
breaking  and  the  violation  of  women;  but,  for 
one  stern  word  of  protest  against  violating 
women  and  cutting  their  throats,  the  records  of 


ii4  THE  NEGRO: 

Negro  meetings  will  show  many  resolutions 
against  the  attack  of  the  mob  on  the  criminal. 
And,  as  to  any  serious  and  determined  effort 
to  take  hold  of  and  stamp  out  the  crime  that  is 
blackening  the  good  name  of  the  entire  Negro 
race  to-day,  and  arousing  against  them  the  fatal 
and  possibly  the  undying  enmity  of  the  stronger 
race,  there  is,  with  the  exception  of  the  utter 
ances  of  a  few  score  individuals  like  Booker  T. 
Washington,  who  always  speaks  for  the  right, 
Hannibal  Thomas,  and  Bishop  Turner,  hardly 
a  trace  of  such  a  thing.  A  crusade  has  been 
preached  against  lynching,  even  as  far  as  Eng 
land;  but  none  has  been  attempted  against  the 
ravishing  and  tearing  to  pieces  of  white  women 
and  children. 

Happily,  there  is  an  element  of  sound- 
minded,  law-abiding  Negroes,  representative  of 
the  old  Negro,  who  without  parade  stand  for 
good  order,  and  do  what  they  can  to  repress 
lawlessness  among  their  people.  Except  for  this 
class  and  for  the  kindly  relations  which  are  pre 
served  between  them  and  the  whites,  the  situa 
tion  in  the  South  would  long  since  have  become 
unbearable.  These,  however,  are  not  generally 
among  the  leaders,  and,  unfortunately,  their  in 
fluence  is  not  sufficiently  extended  to  counteract 


THE  SOUTHERNER'S   PROBLEM      115 

the  evil  influences  which  are  at  work  with  such 
fatal  results. 

One  who  reads  the  utterances  of  Negro  ora 
tors,  editors  and  preachers  on  the  subject  of 
lynching,  and  who  knows  the  Negro  race,  can 
not  doubt  that,  at  bottom,  their  sympathy  is 
generally  with  the  u  victim  "  of  the  mob,  and 
not  with  his  victim. 

Denunciatory  resolutions  may  be  adopted 
without  end,  and  newspapers  may  rave  over  the 
reversion  to  barbarism  shown  by  the  prevalance 
of  the  mob  spirit.  But  it  may  safely  be  asserted 
that  until  the  Negroes  shall  create  among  them 
selves  a  sound  public  opinion  which,  instead  of 
fostering,  shall  reprobate  and  sternly  repress 
the  crime  of  assaulting  women  and  children,  the 
crime  will  never  be  extirpated,  and  until  this 
crime  is  stopped  the  crime  of  lynching  will  never 
be  extirpated.  Lynching  will  never  be  done 
away  with  while  the  sympathy  of  the  whites  is 
with  the  lynchers,  and  no  more  will  ravishing 
be  done  away  with  while  the  sympathy  of  the 
Negroes  is  with  the  ravisher.  When  the  Ne 
groes  shall  stop  applying  all  their  energies  to 
harboring  and  exculpating  Negroes,  no  matter 
what  their  crime  may  be  so  it  be  against  the 
whites,  and  shall  distinguish  between  the  law- 


n6  THE  NEGRO: 

abiding  Negro  and  the  lawbreaker,  a  long  step 
will  have  been  taken. 

Should  the  Negroes  sturdily  and  faithfully 
set  themselves  to  prevent  the  crime  of  rape  by 
members  of  that  race,  it  could  be  stamped  out. 
Should  the  whites  set  themselves  against  lynch 
ing,  lynching  would  be  stopped.  Even  though 
lynching  is  not  now  confined  to  the  punishment 
of  this  crime,  this  crime  is  the  one  that  gives 
the  only  excuse  for  lynching.  The  remedy 
then  is  plain.  Let  the  Negroes  take  charge  of 
the  crime  of  ravishing  and  firmly  put  it  away 
from  them,  and  let  the  whites  take  charge  of 
the  crime  of  lynching  and  put  it  away  from 
them.  It  is  time  that  the  races  should  address 
themselves  to  the  task;  for  it  is  with  nations  as 
with  individual  men;  whatsoever  they  sow  that 
shall  they  also  reap. 

It  is  the  writer's  belief  that  the  arrest  and  the 
prompt  handing  over  to  the  law  of  Negroes  by 
Negroes,  for  assault  on  white  women,  would 
do  more  to  break  up  ravishing,  and  to  restore 
amicable  relations  between  the  two  races,  than 
all  the  resolutions  of  all  the  conventions  and  all 
the  harangues  of  all  the  politicians. 

It  has  been  tried  in  various  States  to  put  an 
end  to  lynching  by  making  the  county  in  which 


THE  SOUTHERNER'S   PROBLEM      117 

the  lynching  occurs  liable  in  damages  for  the 
crime.  It  is  a  good  theory;  and,  if  it  has  not 
worked  well,  it  is  because  of  the  difficulty  of 
executing  the  provision.  Could  some  plan  be 
devised  to  array  each  race  against  the  crime 
to  which  it  is  prone,  both  rape  and  lynching 
might  be  diminished  if  not  wholly  prevented. 

The  practical  application  of  such  a  principle 
is  difficult,  but,  perhaps,  it  is  not  impossible.  It 
is  possible  that  in  every  community  Negroes 
might  be  appointed  officers  of  the  law,  to  look 
exclusively  after  lawbreakers  of  their  own  race. 
The  English  in  the  East  manage  such  matters 
well,  under  equally  complicated  and  delicate 
conditions.  For  example,  in  the  Island  of 
Malta,  where  the  population  is  of  different 
classes  among  whom  a  certain  jealousy  exists, 
there  are  several  classes  of  police:  the  naval 
police,  the  military  police,  and  the  civil  or  mu 
nicipal  police.  To  each  of  these  is  assigned 
more  especially  the  charge  of  one  of  the  three 
classes  of  whom  the  population  of  the  island 
is  composed.  Again,  in  Hong  Kong,  where  the 
situation  is  even  more  delicate,  there  are  sev 
eral  classes  of  police :  the  English,  the  Chinese, 
and  the  Indian  police.  Only  the  first  are  em- 


n8  THE  NEGRO: 

powered  to  make  general  arrests;  the  others 
have  powers  relating  exclusively  to  the  good 
order  of  the  races  to  which  they  belong,  though 
they  may  in  all  cases  be  called  in  to  assist  the 
English  police. 

Somewhat  in  the  same  way,  the  Negroes 
might  be  given  within  their  province  powers 
sufficiently  full  to  enable  them  to  keep  order 
among  their  people,  and  they  might  on  the 
other  hand  be  held  to  a  certain  accountability 
for  such  good  order.  It  might  even  be  required 
that  every  person  should  be  listed  and  steadily 
kept  track  of,  as  is  done  in  Germany  at  present. 
The  recent  vagrant  laws  of  Georgia,  where 
there  are  more  Negroes  than  in  the  entire 
North,  constitute  an  attempt  in  this  direction. 

In  the  same  way,  the  white  officials  charged 
with  the  good  order  of  the  county  or  town 
might  be  given  enlarged  powers  of  summoning 
posses,  and  might  be  held  to  a  high  accountabil 
ity.  For  example,  ipso  facto  forfeiture  of  the 
officers'  official  bond  and  removal  from  office, 
with  perpetual  disability  to  hold  any  office 
again,  might  be  provided  as  a  penalty  for  per 
mitting  any  persons  to  be  taken  out  of  their 
hands. 

Few  ravishings  by  Negroes  would  occur  if 


THE   SOUTHERNER'S   PROBLEM      119 

the  more  influential  members  of  the  race  were 
charged  with  responsibilities  for  the  good  order 
of  their  race  in  every  community;  and  few  lynch- 
ings  would  occur,  at  least  after  the  prisoners 
were  in  the  hands  of  the  officers  of  the  law,  if 
those  officers  by  the  mere  fact  of  relinquishing 
their  prisoners  should  be  disqualified  from  ever 
holding  office  again. 

These  suggestions  may  be  as  Utopian  as 
others  which  have  been  made;  but  if  they  can 
not  be  carried  out,  it  is  because  the  ravishings 
by  Negroes  and  the  murders  by  mobs  have  their 
roots  so  deep  in,  racial  instincts  that  nothing  can 
eradicate  them,  jand  in  such  case  the  ultimate 
issue  will  be  a  resort  to  the  final  test  of  might, 
which  in  the  last  analysis  underlies  everything. 


CHAPTER    V 

THE    PARTIAL   DISFRANCHISEMENT    OF   THE 
NEGRO 

AMONG  the  various  factors  that  have 
contributed  to  bring  about  the  re 
crudescence  of  the  Negro  question  in 
the  last  year  or  two  a  prominent  one  is  the 
movement  in  the  South  to  disfranchise  the  igno 
rant  element  of  the  Negro  race.  This  is  usually 
termed  the  "  Disfranchisement  of  the  Negro." 
But  although  the  object  of  the  movement  is 
frankly  to  disfranchise  the  large  ignorant  ele 
ment  among  that  race,  while  an  ignorant  ele 
ment  among  the  whites  is  left  the  ballot,  the 
term  is  by  no  means  exact. 

Few  things  are  rarer  yet  nothing  is  more  im 
portant  than  accuracy  in  definitions.  In  the 
matter  under  consideration  much  misapprehen 
sion  exists  as  to  the  extent  of  the  disfranchise- 
ment,  and  possibly  more  as  to  its  effect. 

Reams  of  paper  have  been  covered  with  fran 
tic  denunciation;  courts  have  been  appealed  to; 

120 


THE   SOUTHERNER'S   PROBLEM      121 

threats  have  been  made  against  the  Southern 
States  of  reducing  their  representation  in  Con 
gress,  and  still  the  movement  has  gone  on  under 
the  direction  of  the  most  enlightened  and  con 
servative  men  in  the  South?"  And  so  far  as  has 
yet  been  tested,  it  has  proceeded  by  legal 
methods. 

The  disfranchisement  clauses  have  not  only 
caused  an  outcry  on  the  part  of  the  politicians, 
white  and  colored,  and  the  doctrinaires  who 
were  brought  up  on  hostility  to  the  South,  but 
they  have  excited  unfavorable  comment  even 
among  some  friendly  enough  to  the  South,  who, 
while  conceding  that  the  former  "  experiment  " 
has  proved  a  disastrous  failure  so  far  as  the 
South  is  concerned,  yet  believe  that  a  manifest 
injustice  is  done  to  the  rest  of  the  country  by 
one  section  holding  a  representation  in  Congress 
which,  according  to  the  votes  cast  there,  ap 
pears  to  be  in  excess  of  that  held  by  the  rest  of 
the  country. 

A  singular  feature  of  the  case  is  that  the 
division-line  of  opinion  for  or  against  the  meas 
ure  is  not  so  much  that  of  party  affiliation  as 
that  of  familiarity  with  the  conditions  that  have 
brought  about  the  changes  in  the  constitutions 
of  the  Southern  States. 


122  THE  NEGRO: 

Within  the  last  year,  a  man  of  national  repu 
tation,  a  gentleman  of  high  standing,  of  broad 
sympathies  and  much  learning,*  whose  affilia 
tions  are  with  the  party  that  is  dominant  in  the 
South,  in  an  address  before  the  New  England 
Suffrage  Conference,  warmly  approved  the  re 
construction  measures  of  Thaddeus  Stevens  set 
ting  aside  the  civil  governments  in  the  South, 
putting  the  Southern  States  under  military  con 
trol,  and  providing  for  the  Congressional  sys 
tem  of  reconstruction  based  on  Negro  suffrage. 
1  The  measure  finally  adopted  was,"  he  says, 
"  of  proved  necessity.  Thus,  and  thus  only, 
could  the  lives  of  the  colored  men  and  white 
Union  men  be  protected.  They  needed  every 
weapon  that  we  could  place  in  their  hands,  and 
this  weapon  was  among  them." 

This  statement  presents  clearly  the  basic  er 
ror  which  underlies  all  others.  It  is  that  the 
Negro  needs  "  weapons  "  with  which  to  oppose 
the  white,  and  that  "  we  "  must  place  them  in 
his  hands. 

Yet  another  gentleman  of  varied  experience 
and  extensive  general  knowledge,f  whose  affilia 
tions  have  at  times  been  with  the  same  party, 
has  recently  published  a  paper  written  with  all 
*  Mr.  Moorfield  Storey.  f  Mr.  Carl  Schurz. 


THE  SOUTHERNER'S   PROBLEM      123 

his  well-known  ability,  based,  however,  mainly 
on  a  study  which  he  made  of  conditions  at  the 
South  during  a  rapid  tour  in  1865.  Neither 
of  these  gentlemen  has  added  much  to  his 
knowledge  of  the  Negro  question  since  that 
time,  f That  men  of  these  gentlemen's  standing 
can  really  believe  at  this  day  the  facts  stated 
by  them  demonstrates  the  hopelessness  of  ever 
having  the  matter  clearly  viewed  by  a  large 
body  of  well-meaning  peopled 

The  weapon  which  the  advocate  of  universal 
suffrage  applauds  himself  for  having  helped 
to  place  in  the  Negro's  hands  has  been  his  de 
struction.  It  was  a  torch  placed  in  the  hands 
of  a  child,  with  which  he  has  ravaged  all  about 
him  and  involved  himself  in  the  general  confla 
gration. 

Happily,  this  somewhat  outworn  view  of 
conditions  at  the  South  is  not  the  view,  of  the 
body  of  the  American  people  who  have  any 
familiarity  with  the  subject,  or  of  any  portion 
of  them  who  have  had  experience  of  the  condi 
tions  which  existed  under  the  Negro  regime. 

A  respectable  element  among  the  white  Re 
publicans  of  the  South  have  given  it  up.  One 
of  the  most  distinguished  and  thoughtful  North 
ern  men  in  the  country,  a  life-long  Republican, 


I24  THE  NEGRO: 

a  man  of  approved  Republicanism,  declared 
before  the  leading  Republican  club  of  the  coun 
try  not  long  ago,  that  the  "  experiment  entered 
on  with  so  much  enthusiasm  "  had  undoubt 
edly  proved  a  failure. 

Looking  back  on  this  period,  it  is  impossible 
for  the  open-minded  student  not  to  see  that 
whatever  the  motive,  the  result  was,  as  Mr. 
Root  declared  before  the  Union  League  Club, 
a  miserable  failure,  disastrous  to  both  races. 
The  South  was  devastated  and  humiliated  be 
yond  belief;  the  Negroes  were  hopelessly  mis 
led  in  matters  where  right  direction  was  vi 
tally  necessary  to  their  permanent  progress. 
And  the  consequence  was  a  riot  of  civic  de 
bauchery  which  must  bring  shame  to  every  hon 
est  man  of  the  African  race  and  will  always 
prove  a  bar  to  the  possibility  of  Negro  domina 
tion  hereafter.* 

Whether  it  be  recognized  as  yet  or  not,  the 
whole  country  owes  a  debt  to  the  Southern  peo 
ple  who  withstood  to  the  end  the  policy  of  the 
misguided  fanatics  and  politicians  who  would 
have  put  the  South  permanently  under  Negro 
domination.  But  for  the  resolution  and  con- 

*  For  conditions  in  the  South  during  that    period,    see 
post,  chapter  on  The  Race  Problem. 


THE  SOUTHERNER'S   PROBLEM      125 

stancy  of  the  Southern  whites,  one-sixth  of  the 
then  existing  States  of  the  Union  would  have 
become  Negroized  and  we  should  possibly 
have  had  by  this  time  several  States  of  the 
Union  substantially  what  Santo  Domingo  is 
to-day. 

^s  the  realization  is  becoming  more  com 
mon  that  the  "  experiment  "  which  was  entered 
on  with  so  much  enthusiasm  a  generation  ago, 
of  arming  the  Negro  with  "  the  weapon  "  of 
the  ballot,  has  proved  a  disastrous  failure,  it 
is  also  gradually  being  recognized  that  the  kind 
of  education  on  which  so  much  money,  both 
from  public  taxation  and  from  private  philan 
thropy,  has  been  lavished,  and  so  much  care 
has  been  expended,  has  not  only  failed  to  bring 
about  the  results  which  had  been  expected,  but 
has,  so  far  as  the  great  body  of  the  race  is  con 
cerned,  proved  an  absolute  failure?)  The  Ne 
groes  at  large  and  the  doctrinaires  will  not  ac 
cept  this,  but  nevertheless  it  is  recognized  by 
those  who  know  the  Negro  best  and  have  suffi 
cient  breadth  of  knowledge  to  look  at  things  as 
they  are.  The  sanest  and  most  broad-minded 
among  the  Negro  leaders  of  to-day  has  recog 
nized  it,  and  the  foundation  of  his  success  is  his 
recognition  of  it — the  recognition  of  it  by  him 


OF   THE 

UNIVERSITY 


126  THE  NEGRO: 

and  the  recognition  of  it  by  the  whites  of  the 
South,  who  have,  because  of  it,  sustained  him 
by  their  sympathy  and  their  aid.  It  is  because 
of  this  that  Booker  T.  Washington  has  become 
the  best  proof  of  what  the  Negro  race  at  its 
best  may  produce,  and  is  the  most  unanswerable 
argument  adduced  since  the  war  of  the  value  of 
Negro  education. 

He  believes  that  the  Negroes  at  large  should 
be  taught,  first  of  all,  to  work;  that  they 
should  begin  by  being  made  trained  laborers 
and  skilled  artisans,  and  that  then  they  will 
develop  themselves.  This  principle,  though 
sound,  is  strongly  repudiated  by  a  considerable 
element  among  the  more  advanced  Negroes. 
And  the  riot  in  the  Boston  church  in  July,  1903, 
when  the  Principal  of  Tuskegee  spoke  on  the 
industrial  training  of  the  Negro,  was  precipi 
tated  by  an  educated  element  who  believe  in 
agitation  rather  than  in  Principal  Washing 
ton's  pacific  and  rational  methods.  The  latter 
acts  on  the  theory  that,  in  the  main,  the  educa 
tion  of  the  Negroes  as  hitherto  conducted  has 
not  been  generally  a  success.  Those  who 
espouse  the  other  view  assert,  on  the  contrary, 
that  the  education  has  been  a  marked  success 
and  that  the  Negro  is  in  every  way  the  equal  of 


THE   SOUTHERNER'S   PROBLEM      127 

the  white.     And  to  prove  their  case  they  use 
red  pepper  and  razors. 

The  limits  of  this  paper  do  not  admit  of  even 
the  most  cursory  discussion  of  the  comparative 
equality  of  the  two  races.  It  may  be  stated, 
however,  that,  notwithstanding  exceptional  in 
stances,  the  case  of  the  South  rests  frankly  on 
the  present  demonstrable  inferiority  of  the  Ne 
gro  race  to  the  White  race.  Its  superiority  is  a 
dogma  of  the  White  race  wherever  it  may  have 
established  itself,  and  without  doubt,  as  Mr. 
Chamberlain  recently  pointed  out  in  his  address 
at  Birmingham,  this  profound  conviction  has 
been  one  of  the  sources  of  its  strength. 

Much  injury  has  been  done  the  Negro  race 
by  the  misdirected  zeal  of  those  who  continu 
ally  prate  about  their  right  to  equality  with 
the  whites. 

In  1865,  wnen  the  Negro  was  set  free, 
he  held  without  a  rival  the  entire  field  of 
industrial  labor  throughout  the  South.  Ninety- 
five  per  cent,  of  all  the  industrial  work  of  the 
Southern  States  was  in  his  hands.  And  he  was 
fully  competent  to  do  it.  Every  adult  was 
either  a  skilled  laborer  or  a  trained  mechanic. 
It  was  the  fallacious  teaching  of  equality  which 
deluded  him  into  dropping  the  substance  for  the 


128  THE  NEGRO: 

shadow.  To-day  their  wisest  leader  is  trying 
to  emulate  his  great  teacher,  Armstrong,  and 
lead  them  back  to  the  field  which  they  so  care 
lessly  abandoned.  Men  who  are  the  equals  of 
others  do  not  go  about  continually  asserting  it. 
They  show  their  equality  by  the  fruits  of  their 
intellect  and  character.  Among  the  whites,  the 
poor  class  are  not  always  haranguing  and  adopt 
ing  resolutions  as  to  their  equality  with  the 
other  classes,  any  more  than  are  the  well-to-do 
class  always  insisting  upon  their  equality  with 
the  wealthy  class.  They  know  that  they  are 
equal,  if  not  superior,  and  do  not  feel  continu 
ally  called  on  to  assert  it  offensively.  The  same 
may  be  said  about  the  best  educated,  best  be 
haved,  and  most  worthy  among  the  Negroes. 
It  is  the  blatant  demagogue  and  "  mouthy  " 
Negro — a  term  that  was  well  known  during  the 
period  of  slavery — who  is  mainly  heard  on  this 
subject.  Happily  for  the  Negroes,  the  major 
portion  of  them  have  retired  from  the  struggle 
for  political  power,  and,  except  when  excited  by 
agitators,  live  harmoniously  enough  with  the 
whites;  and  the  industrious  element  are  saving, 
and  are  building  themselves  homes. 

While,  however,  the  body  of  the  Negro  race 
are  going  about  their  business  in  good-humored 


THE   SOUTHERNER'S   PROBLEM      129 

content,  generally  in  good  fellowship  with  the 
people  on  whose  friendship  they  are  most  de 
pendent,  the  so-called  "  leaders  "  and  their  so- 
called  "  friends  "  are  spending  their  time  in 
stirring  them  up,  adopting  lurid  resolutions, 
asserting  their  equality  and  calling  on  every 
body  outside  of  the  South  to  help  them  es 
tablish  it. 

LThe  phrase  usually  employed  is  that  the  Ne 
gro  is  "  robbed  of  his  vote,"  this  formula  being 
equally  applied  whether  he  is  restrained  from 
voting  by  the  unlawful  act  of  one  or  more  in 
dividuals  or  by  the  most  solemn  act  that  a  peo 
ple  can  perform — the  provision  of  a  duly  or 
dained  constitution^ 

£t  may  be  well,  at  the  outset  of  the  discussion 
of  this  matter,  to  call  attention  to  a  fact  some 
what  generally  overlooked:  that  the  right  to 
vote  is  not  an  inherent  right.  It  is  a  privilege 
conferred  by  positive  enactment  on  those  citi 
zens  possessed  of  certain  specified  qualifications.^ 
^Further,  the  right  to  determine  the  qualifica 
tion  for  the  suffrage — that  is,  to  declare  on 
what  condition  a  citizen  shall  exercise  the  suf 
frage — rests  with  the  several  States;  the  only 
limitation  to  this  being  the  express  restrictions 
contained  in  the  Constitution  of  the  United 


130  THE  NEGRO: 

States  bearing  on  the  subject.  Where  a  State 
duly  enacts  a  law  it  stands  until  it  is  changed 
by  law  or  is  declared  invalid  by  the  proper  court 
of  competent  jurisdiction.  Its  provisions  are 
until  then  the  lawj 

Qt  is  not  necessary  to  go  largely  into  the  his 
tory  of  the  Fourteenth  and  Fifteenth  Amend 
ments.  They  were  the  offspring  of  ignorance 
and  passion.  They  were  adopted  partly  to  pun 
ish  the  South,  partly  to  arm  the  Negroes  with 
a  weapon  which  would  enable  them  to  hold 
their  own  against  the  whites,  and  partly  to  per 
petuate  the  ascendancy  of  the  radical  wing  of 
fhe  Republican  Party.) 

Prior  to,  and  even  for  some  time  subsequent 
to  the  war,  the  idea  of  endowing  the  Negro 
race  generally  with  the  ballot  had  not  been  seri 
ously  entertained  by  any  considerable  portion  of 
the  American  people. 

Mr.  Lincoln  again  and  again,  during  his  de 
bates  with  Douglas,  declared  his  opposition  to 
the  idea.  He  said  in  one  of  his  speeches:  "  I 
am  not  nor  ever  have  been  in  favor  of  bring 
ing  about  in  any  way  the  social  and  political 
equality  of  the  white  and  black  races ;  I  am  not 
nor  ever  have  been  in  favor  of  making  voters 
or  jurors  of  Negroes,  nor  of  qualifying  them 
to  hold  office  or  intermarry  with  the  white  peo- 


THE   SOUTHERNER'S   PROBLEM      131 

pie;  and  I  will  say  in  addition,  that  there  is  a 
physical  difference  between  the  white  and  black 
races  which,  I  believe,  will  ever  forbid  the  two 
races  living  together  on  terms  of  social  and  po 
litical  equality." 

This  declaration  he  reiterated  in  a  speech 
delivered  at  Columbus.  The  furthest  he  ever 
went  in  favor  of  admitting  any  Negroes  to  the 
privilege  of  the  ballot  was  when,  on  March  13, 
1864,  in  his  letter  to  his  provisional  governor 
in  Louisiana,  Governor  Hahn,  he  said:  "I 
barely  suggest,  for  your  private  consideration, 
whether  some  of  the  colored  people  may  not 
be  let  in:  as,  for  instance,  the  very  intelligent 
and  especially  those  who  have  fought  so  gal 
lantly  in  our  ranks." 

/Of  the  thirty-four  States  which  formed  the 
Union  in  January,  1861,  thirty  excluded  Ne 
groes  from  the  franchise  by  constitutional  pro 
vision;  while  in  the  four  States  whose  constitu 
tions  contained  no  such  provision — New  York, 
Vermont,  Massachusetts,  and  New  Hampshire 
— owing  to  the  small  number  of  Negroes  among 
their  population,  and  the  property  and  educa 
tional  qualifications,  the  Negro  vote  was  so 
small  as  to  be  a  negligible  quantity.*) 

*  In  1860  there  were,  of  Negro  men  of  voting  age  in  New 
Hampshire,  149;  in  Vermont,  194;  in  Massachusetts,  2,512, 


132  THE  NEGRO: 

/The  opposition  to  universal  Negro  suffrage 
was  so  great  throughout  the  North  during  the 
agitation  of  the  question  which  was  subse 
quently  embodied  in  the  Fifteenth  Amendment, 
that,  excluding  the  enforced  acquiescence  of  the 
Southern  States,  it  was  when  submitted  to  the 
people  defeated  in  every  State  except  Iowa  and 
Minnesota.*  After  the  adoption  of  the  Amend 
ment  other  States  voted  for  it. 

It  is  probable  that,  had  the  South  not  been 
so  intractable  in  matters  relating  to  the  Negroes, 

and  in  New  York,  12,989.  In  New  York  alone,  prior  to 
1868,  was  a  Negro  allowed  by  express  provision  to  vote; 
but  a  Negro  voter  was  subject  to  a  property  qualification 
of  $250  not  applicable  to  the  white  voter. — Thorp's  Const. 
Hist,  of  the  U.  S.,  pp.  226-7. 

*  See  "The  Fifteenth  Amendment.  An  Account  of  ita* 
Enactment,"  p.  5.  A.  Caperton  Braxton.  Everett-Waddey 
Co.,  Richmond,  Va. 

The  Reconstruction  Act  forced  through  Congress  in 
August,  1864,  by  the  radical  wing  of  the  Republican 
Party,  and  vetoed  by  Mr.  Lincoln  by  a  pocket  veto,  expressly 
limited  the  franchise  to  adult  whites.  The  platform  of  the 
Republican  Party  on  which  Lincoln  was  renominated  and 
reflected  in  November,  1864,  made  no  reference  to  Negro 
suffrage.  During  this  year  (1864)  tne  Union  people  adopted 
new  or  amended  old  constitutions  in  Arkansas,  Connecticut, 
Kansas,  Louisiana,  Maryland,  Nevada,  New  York,  Penn 
sylvania,  Rhode  Island,  and  Virginia,  but  no  mention  was 
made  of  Negro  suffrage  except  to  exclude  it.  Id. 

In  December,  1865,  when  the  question  of  the  establish 
ment  of  Negro  suffrage  in  the  District  of  Columbia  was  sub- 
fitted  to  the  voters  there,  the  vote  stood,  in  Georgetown,  I 


THE   SOUTHERNER'S   PROBLEM      133 

the  admission  of  the  Negroes  to  the  suffrage 
would  have  been  along  the  line  suggested  by 
Mr.  Lincoln  to  Governor  Hahn.  But  at  that 
time  it  was  deemed  necessary  to  quell  the  South 
though  the  heavens  fell.  Moreover,  there  was 
grave  danger  that  the  South  might  again  hold 
the  balance  of  power  in  the  National  AssemblvJ 
With  stern  and  reckless  determination  the  im- 

vote  for  and  812  votes  against  the  measure,  and  in  Washing 
ton,  35  votes  for  and  6,521  votes  against  the  measure.  Id., 
p.  27. 

In  September,  1865,  the  question  was  submitted  to  the 
voters  of  the  Territory  of  Colorado.  The  vote  stood  476  for 
and  4,192  against  it.  Ib. 

In  June,  1866,  the  people  of  Nebraska  adopted  a  constitu 
tion  which  limited  suffrage  to  whites.  In  October,  1867, 
the  proposition  for  Negro  suffrage  in  Ohio  was  voted  down 
by  over  50,000  majority.  In  November  of  that  year  the 
people  of  Kansas  and  Minnesota  "voted  it  down  by  large 
majorities."  Id.,  p.  29. 

In  November,  1868,  the  people  of  Iowa  voted  to  strike  out 
the  word  "white"  from  the  Constitution.  In  this  State  by 
the  census  of  1870  there  were  289,162  whites  and  1,542 
blacks.  The  vote,  however,  on  this  measure  was  22,000 
less  than  that  for  the  Republican  ticket.  Id.,  p.  39,  citing 
Tribune  Almanac  for  1869,  P-  75- 

In  November,  1868,  the  people  of  Minnesota  once  more 
voted  on  the  measure,  and  this  time  it  was  carried  through 
by  only  about  three-fifths  of  the  majority  given  the  Repub 
lican  ticket.  By  the  census  of  1870  there  were  in  that  State 
1  J4,344  adult  white  men  and  246  adult  Negro  men.  Id.,  p.  40. 

In  1868,  in  Missouri,  the  measure  was  voted  down  by 
18,000  majority.  Ib. 

In  Michigan,  in  1868,  when  the  Republican  Party  carried 


134  THE  NEGRO: 

placable  leaders  of  the  radical  wing  of  the  dom 
inant  party  created  what  one  of  them  termed 
a  force  of  "  perpetual  allies." 

/Having  been  drilled  by  years  of  slavery  to 
follow  the  lead  of  their  masters,  and  being  rea 
sonably  apt  at  imitation,  these  allies  followed 
slavishly  the  direction  of  their  new  leaders)  It 
was  perfectly  natural  that  they  should  at  that 
time  have  given  themselves  unreservedly  to  the 
representatives  of  the  agencies  which  had  eman 
cipated  them,  which  stood  for  them,  and  which 
held  out  to  them  such  glittering  rewards  as 

L  the  State  by  nearly  32,000  majority,  the  question  of  Negro 
!  suffrage  was  voted  down  by  nearly  39,000  majority.     Ib. 

In  1869  the  people  of  New  York  defeated  the  proposed 
J  measure  by  over  32,000  majority,  and  the  Legislature  of  that 
'/  State  rescinded  a  former  act  of  the  previous  Legislature, 
!  which  had,  by  a  majority  of  two,  ratified  the  Fifteenth  Amend 
ment.     Id.,  p.  65. 

On  the  4th  of  March,  1869,  in  Indiana,  seventeen  Senators 
and  thirty-six  Representatives  resigned  from  the  Legislature 
to  break  a  quorum  and  prevent  the  ratification  of  the  amend 
ment.     Every  one  of  these,  with  a  single  exception,  was  sub- 
.    sequently  reflected  by  the  people.     Id.,  p.  66-7. 

Meantime,  under  the  "  Reconstruction  Acts,"  the  amend 
ment  was  forced  on  the  South.  Seven  of  the  Southern 
States  ratified  it  by  the  Negro  vote,  the  whites  being  gener 
ally  disfranchised,  while  in  three  of  them — Virginia,  Missis 
sippi  and  Texas — ratification  was  assented  to  as  a  condition 
of  readmission  to  the  Union.  Ib. 

See  also  Eckenrode's  "Reconstruction  in  Virginia,"  Johns 
Hopkins  Press,  1904. 


THE   SOUTHERNER'S   PROBLEM      135 

complete  equality  with,  and  finally  domination 
over,  their  former  masters.  Possibly,  it  was 
not  unnatural  that  they  should  have  followed 
with  unexampled  credulity  the  most  unprincipled 
among  those  representatives  who  steadily  held 
out  to  them  greater  and  greater  rewards. 

However  it  was,  this  was  the  history  of 
the  exercise  of  the  suffrage.  With  the  weapon 
of  the  ballot,  the  Negro  soon  exceeded  the 
expectation  of  the  most  sanguine  advocate  of 
Negro  suffrage.  Only  the  supreme  constancy 
of  the  Southern  whites  saved  the  Southern 
States. 

From  this  beginning,  every  question  became  a 
race  question,  until  to-day  no  question  can  arise 
which  is  not  regarded  by  the  Negroes  gener 
ally  from  a  racial  standpoint.  It  may  be  as 
serted  that  this  was  quite  natural.  But  the  fact 
that  it  is  so  is  the  best  argument  for  the  South 
ern  view. 

It  is  a  somewhat  curious  if  not  pertinent  fact 
that  in  the  place  where  [Negro  suffrage  was  first 
established  by  Act  of  Congress,  the  District  of 
Columbia  (where  it  was  established  by  the  Act 
of  January  8,  i867)j  which  has  always  been 
under  the  direct  control  of  National  Govern 
ment,  subsequent  conditions  became  so  insup- 


136  THE  NEGRO: 

portable  that  it  was  deemed  necessary  to  do 
away  with  the  ballot  altogether. 

In  all  the  years  that  have  passed  the  same 
unhappy  condition  has  continued.  The  Negroes 
remained  solidly  banded  against  the  whites. 
This  solidarity  effectually  prevented  the  whites 
from  dividing  on  any  of  the  great  economic 
questions  of  the  time.  To  meet  this  condition, 
one  method  after  another  was  essayed.  At  times 
force  was  openly  resorted  to  to  prevent  the  re 
currence  of  conditions  that  rendered  life  unbear 
able;  at  times  shifts  came  into  vogue  that  no 
one  pretended  to  excuse  except  by  the  argument 
of  necessity — such,  for  example,  as  the  system 
of  having  separate  ballot-boxes  for  each  candi 
date,  with  a  view  to  shifting  them  about;  the 
system  of  "  understanding-clauses  "  unequally 
applied;  the  system  of  ballot-box  stuffing;  the 
system  of  bribery,  whether  of  leaders  or  of 
individuals. 

In  some  places  the  question  was  seriously  de 
bated  whether  it  was  worse  to  use  force  or 
fraud,  the  necessity  for  one  or  the  other  being 
simply  assumed.  In  others,  some  Negroes  sub 
stantially  auctioned  off  their  votes.* 

*  For  such  an  instance,  see  Dr.  H.  M.  Field's  "Sunny  Skies 
and  Dark  Shadows." 


THE  SOUTHERNER'S   PROBLEM      137 

The  result  of  such  conditions  was  the  retire 
ment  of  many  of  the  best  men  in  the  South  from 
all  part  in  public  affairs,  the  withdrawal  of 
the  South  from  due  participation  in  all  other 
questions  of  the  national  life,  the  menace  of  the 
debauchery  of  public  morals. 

In  this  wretched  state  of  affairs  the  Southern 
people  resolved  to  eliminate  by  law,  as  far  as 
possible,  the  ignorant  Negro  vote.  How  uni 
versal  the  conviction  was  of  its  necessity  may 
be  judged  from  the  fact  that  it  has  been  at 
tempted  in  nearly  every  State  in  the  South. 
How  legal  it  may  be  is  a  question  for  the  Su 
preme  Court  of  the  United  States. 

The  new  movement  is  being  followed  by 
stringent  laws  striking  at  all  debauchery  of  the 
ballot. 

As  absolutely  necessary,  however,  as  the 
South  has  deemed  this  movement,  perhaps  noth 
ing  of  late  has  done  more  to  arouse  feeling  in 
the  North,  than  the  small  vote  cast  in  the  latter 
section.  It  would  appear  as  though  the  North 
deemed  itself  discriminated  against  and  conse 
quently  injured  by  this  action.  The  charge  is 
constantly  made  that  owing  to  this  disfran- 
chisement,  the  South  has  a  larger  representation 
than  the  North. 


138  THE  NEGRO: 

This  idea  has  recently  been  set  forth  in  a 
paper  in  one  of  the  leading  magazines,  which, 
admitting  that  the  law  has  not  been  contra 
vened,  has  yet  gone  so  far  as  to  suggest  that  a 
sixteenth  amendment  to  the  Constitution  of  the 
United  States  should  be  adopted  to  rectify  this 
inequality.  This  suggestion  would  appear  to  be 
based  on  a  false  conception  of  the  fundamental 
law.  Representation  is  apportioned  by  law  ac 
cording  to  the  number  of  the  population,  not  of 
the  voting  population,  and  each  State  has  the 
absolute  right  to  make  its  qualification  for  the 
suffrage  high  or  otherwise,  subject  only  to  the 
restrictions  contained  in  the  amendments  to  the 
Constitution. 

The  feeling  seems  to  be  that  in  some  way  the 
South  without  violating  the  amendments,  has, 
by  proving  that  they  do  not  cover  the  case,  se 
cured  an  undue  advantage  over  the  North.  It 
is,  however,  difficult  to  understand  how  it 
should  be  an  advantage  when  a  State,  by  acting 
within  the  law,  simply  cuts  down  its  suffrage 
list.  How  was  North  Carolina,  which  in  1880 
cast  a  vote  equal  to  81  per  cent,  of  its  voting 
population  injured  by  the  fact  that  Massachu 
setts  in  that  election  cast  only  56  per  cent,  of  its 
voting  population ;  or  how  was  South  Carolina, 


THE   SOUTHERNER'S   PROBLEM      139 

which,  that  year,  cast  82  per  cent,  of  its  entire 
vote,  injured  by  Rhode  Island's  casting  only  37 
per  cent.?  How  would  Delaware,  which  re 
quires  no  qualification  for  the  suffrage,  except 
that  a  resident  voter  shall  have  paid  a  registra 
tion  fee  of  $i,  be  discriminated  against  by  the 
fact  that  California  provides  that  only  those  may 
vote  who  can  read  the  Constitution  in  English 
and  can  write  his  name;  or,  how  are  the  people 
of  Colorado,  where  women,  as  well  as  men  vote, 
injured  by  the  fact  that  only  men  vote  in  Mas 
sachusetts  and  Virginia  ? 

Yet,  as  plain  as  this  would  have  seemed,  the 
action  of  the  Southern  States  has  undoubtedly 
aroused  a  feeling  in  the  North  that  the  North 
ern  people  have,  in  some  way,  been  injured 
thereby. 

It  has  been  proposed  to  cut  down  the  repre 
sentation  of  the  Southern  States  in  Congress, 
and  resolutions  have  been  introduced  in  Con 
gress  to  carry  out  this  idea.  Possibly  the  move 
ment  has  not  been  as  serious  as  it  has  appeared. 
However,  it  has  been  already  serious  enough  in 
its  consequences  to  excite  the  Negroes  into  a 
state  of  renewed  aggressiveness. 

This  proposition,  which  is  intended  to  be 
partly  monitory  and  partly  punitive,  is  warmly 


THE  NEGRO: 

advocated  by  most  if  not  all  of  the  Negro  lead 
ers  and  their  doctrinaire  friends. 

It  would  undoubtedly  be  strongly  opposed 
by  the  majority  of  the  white  people  of  the 
South,  and  possibly  by  some  of  the  more  far- 
sighted  friends  of  the  Negro  race  outside  of  the 
South,  who,  looking  a  little  beyond  the  imme 
diate  disfranchisement  of  ignorant  Negroes,  see 
that  the  ultimate  effect  will  be  to  establish  a 
general  and  impartial  electoral  system,  based 
on  the  disfranchisement  of  ignorance  and  vice. 

Before  the  proposal  is  carried  into  effect,  it 
might  be  well  for  its  advocates  to  consider  cer 
tain  facts. 

In  the  first  place,  it  is  a  grave  question 
whether  the  section  of  the  Fourteenth  Amend 
ment  of  the  Federal  Constitution  on  which 
such  action  must  be  based  is  now  valid  or 
whether  it  was  not  repealed  by  the  Fifteenth 
Amendment  to  the  Constitution,  which  prohib 
its  disfranchisement  on  account  of  race,  color, 
etc.  The  latter  view  was  taken  and  was  ably 
argued  in  the  recent  notable  address  delivered  in 
Albany  in  June,  1903,  by  Charles  A.  Gardiner, 
Esq.,  of  New  York,  before  the  Forty-first  An 
nual  Convocation  of  the  University  of  the  State 
of  New  York.  He  maintains  that  "  a  State  can 


THE  SOUTHERNER'S   PROBLEM      141 

discriminate  against  Negro  suffrage  only  by 
an  organic  or  statutory  law,"  and  that  before 
Congress  can  penalize  a  State  such  a  law  must 
be  adopted  and  it  must  be  a  valid  law.  But 
(he  argues)  since  the  adoption  of  the  Fifteenth 
Amendment,  no  law  which  violated  its  provi 
sion  could  be  valid.  It  would  not  merely  be 
voidable,  but  void  ab  initio.  "  And  a  void  law 
is  no  law."  * 

But  even  assuming  that  the  Congress  might 
have  the  authority  to  cut  down  the  represen 
tation  under  the  present  law,  it  is  a  question 
whether  the  disfranchising  clauses  of  the  New 
Constitution  in  the  Southern  States  afford  any 
basis  for  such  an  attempt  at  reduction  in  their 
representation. 

The  qualifications  for  voting  in  the  various 
States  of  the  South  would  not  seem  to  be  in 
any  way  improper  on  the  face  of  their  constitu 
tions.  The  impropriety  charged  against  them 
is  based  wholly  on  the  fact  that  they  disfran 
chise  more  of  one  class  of  citizens  than  of 
others. 

/According  to  the  tabulation  of  the  u  Quali 
fications  for  Voting  in  each  State  in  the  Union," 
published  in  the  World  Almanac  for  1904,  and 
*i  Cr.  137;  118  U.  S.  Rep.  142. 


142  THE  NEGRO: 

"  communicated  to  it  "  and  corrected  to  date 
"  by  the  Attorneys-General  of  the  respective 
States,"  all  the  States  except  the  two  Carolinas 
have  the  "  Australian  Ballot  Law,"  or  a  modi 
fication  of  it,  in  force,  and  all  the  States  require 
that  the  "  Voters  shall  be  citizens  of  the  State 
or  of  the  United  States,  or  an  alien  who  has 
declared  intention  to  become  naturalized  ";  and 
all  the  States  except  Maine,  Massachusetts, 
Michigan,  New  Hampshire,  and  Vermont  ex 
clude  from  the  right  of  suffrage  those  convicted 
of  felony  or  infamous  crime,  unless  pardonedTj 

Besides  these,  paupers  and  persons  non 
compos  mentis  are  generally  excluded.  These 
provisions  are  general. 

1  Arkansas,  however,  excludes  from  the  right 
to  the  suffrage  those  who  have  failed  to  pay 
the  poll-tax.  California  excludes  everyone  un 
able  to  read  the  Constitution  in  English  and  to 
write  his  name.  (Connecticut  requires  for  citi- 

^" '          ^ 

zenship  that  a  man  shall  be  a  citizen  of  the 
United  States  who  can  read  the  English  lan 
guage.  JDdaware  requires  the  payment  of  a 
registration  fee  of  $i ;  Georgia  requires  the  pay 
ment  of  all  taxes  since  1877.  Louisiana  admits 
only  those  able  to  read  and  write,  or  who  own 
$300  worth  of  property  assessed  in  their  names, 


THE   SOUTHERNER'S    PROBLEM      143 

or  whose  father  or  grandfather  was  entitled  to 
vote  on  January  i,  1867.  (This  last  is  the 
celebrated  "  Squaw  Clause.")  Massachusetts 
admits  only  those  who  can  read  and  write. 
Mississippi  admits  only  those  who  can  read  or 
understand  the  Constitution  when  read  to  them. 
Missouri  requires  voters  to  have,  paid  their  poll- 
taxes  for  the  current  year.  /Pennsylvania  re 
quires  a  voter,  if  twenty-two  years  of  age  or 
more^to  have  paid  taxes  within  two  years. 
South  Carolina  requires  that  a  voter  shall  have 
paid  six  months  prior  to  the  election  any  poll- 
taxes  then  due,  and  shall  be  able  to  read  and 
write  any  section  of  the  State  Constitution,  or  to 
show  that  he  owns  and  has  paid  the  previous 
year  all  taxes  on  property  in  the  State  assessed 
at  $300  or  more. 

Tennessee  requires  that  a  voter  shall  have 
paid  his  poll-tax  for  the  preceding  year.  Ver 
mont  excludes  from  the  suffrage  "  those  who 
have  not  obtained  the  approbation  of  the  local 
board  of  civil  authority." 
/Virginia's  qualification  for  registration  is  as 
follows,  until  1904:  "  First,  a  person  who, 
prior  to  the  adoption  of  the  Constitution,  served 
in  time  of  war  in  the  army  or  navy  of  the 
United  States  or  the  Confederate  States,  or  of 


H4  THE  NEGRO: 

any  State  of  the  United  States  or  of  the  Confed 
erate  States;  or,  second,  a  son  of  any  such  per 
son  ;  or,  third,  a  person  who  owns  property  upon 
which,  in  the  year  next  preceding  that  in  which 
he  offers  to  register,  State  taxes  aggregating  at 
least  $i  have  been  paid;  or,  fourth,  a  person 
able  to  read  any  section  of  the  Constitution  sub 
mitted  to  him  by  the  officers  of  registration, 
and  to  give  a  reasonable  explanation  of  the  same, 
or  if  unable  to  read  such  section,  able  to  under 
stand  and  give  a  reasonable  explanation  thereof 
when  read  to  him  by  the  officers."  Those  regis 
tering  prior  to  1904  form  a  permanent  roll. 
After  1904  the  soldier's-son  clause  and  the  un 
derstanding  clause  are  done  away  with,  and  a 
poll-tax  must  be  paicLJ 

(^Thus,  it  will  be  seen  that  Arkansas,  Missouri, 
South  Carolina,  and  Tennessee  require  the  pre 
payment  of  a  poll-tax,  while  Delaware  requires 
the  payment  of  a  registration  fee  of  $i;  that 
Georgia  and  Pennsylvania  require  the  prepay 
ment  of  taxes,  while  South  Carolina,  Louisiana, 
and  Virginia  require  the  payment  of  taxes  in 
the  alternative,  another  alternative  being  that 
the  voter  must,  in  South  Carolina  and  Louisi 
ana,  as  in  California,  be  able  to  read  and  write, 
while  in  Virginia,  as  in  Mississippi,  he  is  re- 


THE  SOUTHERNER'S   PROBLEM      145 

quired  only  to  be  able  to  read  or  understand  the 
Constitution  when  read  to  him,  though  in  Vir 
ginia  this  last  requirement  was  only  for  two 
years;  and  after  two  years  the  voter  must  be 
able  to  read  and  write.*7 
^Louisiana  excepts  mose  whose  father  or 
grandfather  was  entitled  to  vote  on  January 
i,  1867,  and  Virginia  excepts  until  1904  those 
who  were  soldiers  or  seamen  or  whose  fathers 
served  as  soldiers  or  seamen  in  time  of  war. 

Vermont,  on  the  other  hand,  has  the  singular 
requirement  that  the  voter  must  "  obtain  the 
approbation  of  the  local  board  of  civil  author 
ity  " — a  requirement  which  would  seem  to 
place  the  qualification  wholly  at  the  mercy  of 
the  party  in  powerA 

Though  the  representation  in  Congress  of 
the  Southern  States  would  appear  at  present  to 
be  greater  than  the  recorded  vote  of  those 
States  would  entitle  them  to,  the  inequality  is 
by  no  means  so  real  as  it  appears,  and  is  not 
greater  than  that  which  exists  between  some  of 
the  Eastern  and  Western  States.* 

*  For  example,  in  1880  the  vote  of 

North  Carolina  was  81  per  cent,  of  its  voting  population. 
Massachusetts      "  56 
South  Carolina     "  82 
Rhode  Island       "  37 


146  THE  NEGRO: 


has  been  well  shown  by  the  same  distin 
guished  member  of  the  New  York  Bar  already 
quoted  that  "  the  disparity  between  the  South 
ern  States  where  the  ignorant  Negro  vote  has 
been  practically  eliminated  and  the  Eastern 
States,  though  glaring,  is  less  than  that  between 
the  Eastern  States  and  some  of  the  Western 
States.  For  example,  "  Rhode  Island's  vote  is 
1.59  times  as  great  as  Alabama's,  but  South 

Mississippi  was  49  per  cent,  of  its  voting  population. 
Vermont        "    66 
Alabama       "    58 
Florida          "    83 

Maryland's  vote  for  each  Congressman  at  the  last  Con 
gressional  election  (1902)  averaged: 

Maryland 44,085 

Illinois 45,275 

New  York 41,826 

Pennsylvania 36,662 

North  Carolina 29,267 

Virginia 26,409 

Massachusetts 29,628 

Rhode  Island 28,284 

Vermont 28,108 

Maine 26,430 

South  Dakota 96,131 

Colorado 92,167 

Alabama I7»73I 

Florida 12,677 

Georgia II,I55 

Louisiana 9,77° 

Mississippi 7,3^8 

South  Carolina 7>259 


THE  SOUTHERNER'S   PROBLEM      147 

Dakota's  is  3.39  as  great  as  that  of  Rhode  Isl 
and.  Vermont's  is  2.22  times  as  great  as  Flor 
ida's,  but  Utah's  is  3.01  as  great  as  Vermont's. 
Maine's  is  2.36  as  great  as  Georgia's,  but  Col 
orado's  is  3.48  times  as  great  as  Maine's."  *] 

The  figures  cited  fail  to  give  the  strength  of 
the  Southern  vote.  The  small  vote  in  the  South 
ern  States  is  due  partly  to  the  fact  that  the 
ascendancy  of  one  political  party  is  so  great  that 
voters  do  not  feel  it  necessary  to  attend  the 

the  next  place,  though  it  was  frankly  ad- 
d  that  the  motive  of  the  disfranchisement 
clauses  was  to  disfranchise  the  ignorant  colored 
vote,   while  the   ignorant  white  vote  was   ad 
mitted  for  a  time,  provided  the  voters  or  their 
fathers  had  been  soldiers,  this  is  but  a  tempo 
rary  inequality;  and  that  the  ignorant  colored 
vote    does    not    come    within    the    grandfather 
clause  or  other  saving  clauses  is  an  incident  of 
the  time.     In  a  comparatively  short  time  the 
effect  of  these  saving  clauses  will  have  passed 
^away  and  the  suffrage  will  be  based  on  a  purely 
keducational  or  property  qualification^ 

A  writer  in  The  Outlook  of  June  13,   1903, 
in  im    article    entitled,    "  Negro    Suffrage    in 
*  Address  of  Mr.  Charles  A.  Gardiner,  cited  ante. 


148  THE  NEGRO: 

the  South,"  says:  "How  far  do  they  exclude 
him  (the  Negro)  in  point  of  fact?  In  answer 
ing  this  question  the  reader  must  note  that  in 
three  of  the  States,  Alabama,  South  Carolina, 
and  Virginia,  a  Negro  who  possesses  property 
amounting  in  value  to  $300  and  has  paid  his 
taxes  may  vote.  He  may  not  be  able  to  read 
and  write,  he  may  not  be  able  to  understand 
the  Constitution  when  it  is  read  to  him.  But 
if  he  has  had  the  industry,  the  sobriety,  the 
thrift  which  have  enabled  him  to  accumu] 
taxable  property  to  the  amount  of  $300, 
the  ballot.  How  many  Negroes  there 
the  South  who  under  this  provision  are  ad 
mitted  to  the  ballot  we  have  no  means  of  know 
ing.  It  has  been  estimated  that  the  total  own- 
ings  of  Negroes  in  the  Southern  States  mount 
up  to  $300,000,000  worth  of  personal  and  real 
estate.  It  is  officially  reported  that  in  Virginia 
they  own  one-twenty-sixth  of  all  the  land  in  the 
State.  These  facts  would  seem  to  indicate  that 
a  not  inconsiderable  number  of  Negroes  are 
admitted  to  the  ballot  in  the  Southern  States  un 
der  the  property  qualification.  On  the  other 
hand,  a  considerable  white  population  has  U§n 
disfranchised  under  this  property-qualification 
clause.  We  are  informed  by  a  Southern  cor- 


iy,     me 

mu^^ 

1 


THE  SOUTHERNER'S   PROBLEM      149 

respondent,  whose  means  of  acquaintance  justify 
our  placing  some  confidence  in  his  statement, 
that  in  Alabama  fully  fifty  thousand  white  men, 
under  the  practical  operation  of  the  Constitu 
tion,  by  non-payment  of  poll-taxes  or  other 
clauses,  have  been  disfranchised/^ 

Ut  may  also  be  well  to  consider  the  effect  of 
such  a  penalizing  measure  on  the  future  of  the 
Negro  himself.  To  adopt  it  would  be  to  vio 
late  the  one  principle  on  which  the  permanent 
advance  of  the  Negro  race  must  be  founded. 
That  is,  the  recognition,  even  at  this  late  hour, 
by  the  Negro  that  he  must  stand  on  his  own 
merits  and  is  to  be  left  to  work  out  politically, 
as  well  as  economically,  his  own  future.  To 
adopt  it  would  mislead  him  into  thinking  he  is 
still  the  ward  of  the  nation  and  is  to  be  sup 
ported  by  it,  irrespective  of  his  conduct — an 
idea  to  which  may  be  traced  a  considerable  por 
tion  of  all  that  has  retarded  the  Negro's  ad 
vance  in  the  past.  It  will  tend  to  divert  once 
more  his  aim  from  the  paths  of  industry  to 
which  it  is  being  turned  by  the  wisest  of  his 
friends.  It  will  engender  a  new  hostility  to 
him  on  the  part  of  the  stronger  race,  on  wJK)se 
friendship  his  future  welfare  must  depend.y 
Finally,  should  such  a  measure  be  adopted, 


150  THE  NEGRO: 

it  might  lead  the  whites  of  the  South  to  do  what 
they  have  hitherto  steadfastly  refused  to  do — 
apply  the  money  derived  by  taxation  on  the 
property  of  each  race  exclusively  to  the  educa 
tion  of  that  race.  It  has  been  publicly  alleged 
and  appears  to  be  generally  assumed  that  the 
recent  election  in  Mississippi  was  in  a  measure 
reactionary.  The  ground  for  this  assumption 
seems  to  be  that  the  successful  candidate  for 
the  Governorship  had  declared  himself  to  a  cer 
tain  extent  opposed  to  a  continuance  of  the  pre 
vailing  system.  The  writer,  while  recognizing 
the  disappointing  results  that  have  followed  the 
large  expenditure  for  the  education  of  the  Ne 
groes,  would  deplore  immeasurably  any  back 
ward  step  in  the  matter  of  education  in  the 
South.  Light,  however  glimmering,  is  far  bet 
ter  than  darkness.  The  present  system  of  edu 
cation  may  be  a  poor  one,  but  it  is  infinitely 
better  than  none.  Every  consideration  of  pub 
lic  policy  would  seem  to  urge  its  continuance 
until  a  better  system  can  be  devised.  And  one 
consideration  would  appear  unanswerable.  The 
Negroes  will  always  have  their  own  leaders, 
and  it  is  better  that  these  leaders  should  be  en 
lightened  rather  than  ignorant.  No  more  de 
plorable  disaster  could  befall  the  South  than 


THE  SOUTHERNER'S   PROBLEM      151 

in  this  age  of  advancing  enlightenment  to 
have  a  great  pariah  class  hopelessly  and  irrev 
ocably  ignorant  established  within  her  borders. 

In  this  view  he  believes  the  great  body  of 
thoughtful  Southerners  will  unite.  But  no  one 
can  foretell  what  effect  on  public  sentiment  a 
crusade  against  the  South,  based  on  her  attitude 
toward  the  Negroes,  might  produce.  It  might 
sweep  away  the  last  remnant  of  good  feeling 
that  remains,  and  with  it  every  dollar  raised  by 
taxation  on  the  property  of  the  whites  to  edu 
cate  the  blacks.  The  South  is  now  spending  on 
the  education  of  the  Negro  race,  by  voluntary 
taxation  of  the  property  of  the  white  race,  over 
five  and  one-half  millions  of  dollars  annually. 
It  would  be  a  poor  bargain  to  exchange  for 
the  figment  of  a  right  which  ignorance  should 
never  have  had,  the  remaining  good-will  of  the 
Whites  of  the  South  and  the  sum  they  annually 
expend  from  their  own  pockets  in  trying  to 
uplift  the  Negro  and  fit  him  for  the  exercise  of 
that  right. 

It  is  the  conviction  of  the  writer,  and  he  gives 
it  for  what  it  is  worth,  that  the  disfranchise- 
ment  of  the  main  body  of  the  Negro  race  in 
the  Southern  States  was  a  measure  of  high  ne 
cessity.  He  further  believes  that  this  disfran- 


152  THE  NEGRO: 

chisement  is  for  the  permanent  welfare  of  both 
races,  fit  removes  for  the  time  being  what  is 
the  chieT  cause  of  bitterness — a  bitterness  from 
which  tr^Negro  is  a  greater  sufferer  than  the 
white.  Wwill  turn  the  Negro  generally  from 
the  field  where,  in  his  present  condition,  he  has 
proved  a  failure,  and  leave  him  to  develop  him 
self  in  a  field  where  he  may  be  the  equal  of  any 

other  man/ 
^       -CJ 

^)ne  who  has  been  a  serious  and,  as  is  gen 
erally  agreed,  a  profound  student  of  our  Gov 
ernment  and  our  people  has  recently  given  his 
conclusions  after  study  of  conditions  in  the 
South,  and  they  agree  substantially  with  the 
views  of  the  more  conservative  element  of  the 
Southern  whites.*  Mr.  James  Bryce  declares, 
"  that  those  who  rule  subject  Races  on  despotic 
methods  ...  do  not  realize  all  the  difficul 
ties  that  arise  in  a  Democracy.  The  capital 
instance  is  afforded  by  the  history  of  the  South 
ern  States  since  the  Civil  War.  .  .  . 

u  The  moral  to  be  drawn  from  the  case  of 

v_— - 

the  Southern  States  seems  to  be  that  you  must 
not,  however  excellent  your  intentions  and  how- 

*  See  the  Romanes  Lectures,  1902:  The  Relations  of  the 
Advanced  and  the  Backward  Races  of  Mankind.  By  James 
Bryce,  D.C.L. 


THE  SOUTHERNER'S   PROBLEM      153 

ever  admirable  your  sentiments,  legislate  in  the 
teeth  of  facts.  The  great  bulk  of  the  Negroes 
were  not  fit  for  the  suffrage;  nor  under  the 
American  Federal  system  was  it  possible  (with 
out  incurring  other  grave  evils)  to  give  them 
effective  protection  in  the  exercise  of  the  suf 
frage.  It  would,  therefore,  have  been  better  to 
postpone  the  bestowal  of  this  dangerous  boon. 
True  it  is  that  rocks  and  shoals  were  set  thick 
around  every  course ;  true  that  it  is  easier  to  per 
ceive  the  evils  of  a  course  actually  taken  than 
to  realize  other  evils  that  might  have  followed 
some  other  course.  Nevertheless,  the  general 
opinion  of  dispassionate  men  has  come  ID  deem 
the  action  taken  in  A.D.,  1870,  a  mistake.! 

'  The  social  relations  of  two  Races  which 
cannot  be  fused  raise  problems  even  more  diffi 
cult,  because  incapable  of  being  regulated  by 
law.  .  .  . 

4  The  tremendous  problem  presented  by  the 
Southern  States  of  America,  and  the  likelihood 
that  similar  problems  will  have  to  be  solved 
elsewhere,  as,  for  instance,  in  South  Africa  and 
the  Philippine  Isles,  bid  us  ask,  What  should 
be  the  duty  and  the  policy  of  a  dominant  Race 
where  it  cannot  fuse  with  a  backward  Race? 
Duty  and  policy  are  one,  for  it  is  equally  to 


154  THE  NEGRO: 

the  interest  of  both  Races  that  their  relations 
should  be  friendly. 

"  The  answer  seems  to  be  that  as  regards 
political  rights,  Race  and  blood  should  not  be 
made  the  ground  of  discrimination.  Where  the 
bulk  of  the  colored  Race  are  obviously  unfit  for 
political  power,  a  qualification  based  on  prop 
erty  and  education  might  be  established  which 
should  permit  the  upper  section  of  that  Race 
to  enjoy  the  suffrage.  Such  a  qualification  would 
doubtless  exclude  some  of  the  poorest  and  most 
ignorant  whites,  and  might  on  that  ground  be 
resisted.  But  it  is  better  to  face  this  difficulty 
than  to  wound  and  alienate  the  whole  of  the 
colored  Race  by  placing  them  without  the  pale 
of  civic  functions  and  duties." 

One  of  the  fundamental  errors  has  been  in 
considering  the  Negroes  as  a  special  class,  to 
be  regarded,  discussed,  legislated  for,  aided,  and 
sustained  as  such,  instead  of  as  plain  human 
beings  who,  judged  according  to  certain  univer 
sal  standards,  belong  to  various  classes  in  which 
those  standards  would  place  other  members  of 
the  human  family.  This  was  the  fundamental 
error  of  the  doctrinaire  in  the  first  instance, 
and,  unfortunately,  the  Negroes  themselves  have 
gotten  the  idea  so  firmly  fixed  in  their  minds 


THE   SOUTHERNER'S   PROBLEM      155 

that  they  have  long  regarded  their  race  as  a 
special  species,  to  be  considered  from  quite  a 
special  standpoint,  judged  by  different  stand 
ards,  and  dealt  with  in  a  different  manner  from 
the  rest  of  the  world. 

Nothing  could  be  more  unwise,  because  noth 
ing  tends  more  to  mislead  the  Negro  as  to  the 
future  and  keep  up  the  misunderstanding  which 
blocks  the  way  to  a  proper  solution  of  the  ques 
tion.  The  Negroes  must  learn  that  before  they 
can  claim  to  be  accorded  the  treatment  that  the 
Whites  receive  they  must  themselves  act  along 
lines  which  govern  the  conduct  of  the  whites. 

If  a  white  man  is  a  brute  or  a  blackguard, 
all  whites  do  not  feel  it  necessary  to  defend 
him.  If  a  white  man  commits  a  crime,  all 
whites  do  not  conspire  to  shield  him  and  aid 
him  in  escaping  the  penalties  of  the  law.  If  a 
white  man  is  arrested,  all  whites  do  not  assail 
the  arresting  officers ;  he  is  left  to  his  remedy  at 
law.  If  a  white  man  has  committed  rape  and 
murder  and  a  mob  catches  and  lynches  him,  all 
white  men,  however  they  deplore  and  denounce 
lawlessness,  do  not  feel  it  necessary  to  declare 
the  miscreant  innocent  and  a  martyr. 

A  great  step  will  be  taken  toward  the  correct 
solution  of  the  problem  when  the  Negroes  shall 


156  THE  NEGRO: 

be  considered  and  shall  consider  themselves  not 
"  in  the  lump,"  but  as  individuals,  just  as  any 
other  members  of  the  community  are  consid 
ered;  not  as  a  separate  class,  but  as  part  of 
various  classes  to  which  their  standing  morally, 
mentally,  and  personally  would  assign  them — 
when  they  shall  be  judged  by  the  same  standards 
and  governed  by  the  same  rules ;  when  the  male 
factor  shall  be  dealt  with  as  a  malefactor;  the 
reputable  man  shall  be  esteemed  for  his  good 
character:  in  other  words,  when  every  man 
shall  be  judged  on  his  own  merits  and  shall 
stand  or  fall  on  his  own  showing.  This  must 
be  the  work  of  both  races.  It  is  what  the  more 
enlightened  Negroes  say  they  desire;  but,  un 
fortunately,  not  a  great  many  of  them  appear 
to  act  upon  this.  Their  acts,  their  addresses  de 
livered  at  Afro-American  meetings,  their  news 
papers,  their  writings,  all  tend  to  show  that 
those  who  claim  and  would  appear  to  be  the 
leaders  among  them  regard  all  matters  wholly 
from  a  racial  standpoint.  They  clamor  for 
recognition  and  for  assistance  as  Negroes ;  make 
inflammatory  speeches;  call  on  Congress  to 
intervene  in  their  behalf  as  such,  and  at  times 
even  suggest,  in  case  Congress  does  not  inter 
pose,  that  an  appeal  be  made  to  foreign  nations. 


THE  SOUTHERNER'S   PROBLEM      157 

It  is  worth  while  to  note  that  most  of  the 
appeals,  addresses,  resolutions,  and  other  clam 
ors  that  tend  to  stir  up  the  Negroes  in  the  South 
come  from  those  who  are  outside  of  her  bor 
ders,  and  consequently  are  beyond  any  direct 
suffering  from  the  oppression  and  other  outrages 
against  which  they  protest.  This  feeling  is, 
therefore,  entirely  racial.  In  the  main,  the 
Negroes  in  the  South  appear  to  get  on  fairly 
well  with  their  other  fellow-citizens;  and  the 
resolutions  and  addresses  that  emanate  from 
these  are  much  more  temperate  and  reasonable 
than  those  which  come  from  the  outside.  Com 
pare,  for  example,  the  addresses  and  resolu 
tions  of  the  Negro  Convention  held  two  years 
ago  at  Louisville  with  those  in  some  of  the 
Northern  cities. 

A  sentiment  has  developed  in  parts  of  the 
South  since  the  recent  agitation  to  repeal  the 
Fifteenth  Amendment  to  the  Constitution  of 
the  United  States,  but  this  has  not  been  strong 
enough  to  lead  to  any  overt,  much  less  con 
certed  attempt  to  promote  such  a  movement. 
On  the  contrary,  the  leaders  among  the  South 
ern  people  have  hitherto  firmly  opposed  the  sug 
gestion  of  such  a  measure.  One  reason  undoubt 
edly  has  been  the  practical  difficulties  in  the 


158  THE  NEGRO: 

way  of  carrying  it  through;  but  another  has 
been  that  they  have  generally  not  wished  to 
exclude  from  the  suffrage  the  best  element 
among  the  Negroes. 

\rersonally  the  writer  does  not,  under  exist 
ing  conditions,  believe  in  repealing  the  amend 
ment.  He  would,  indeed,  rather  have  it  re 
pealed  than  have  a  perpetual  continuance  of 
the  evils  that  have  resulted  from  unrestricted 
suffrage.  But  he  believes  that  these  evils  will 
to  a  large  extent  be  done  away  with  by  the  new 
constitutions,  and  he  believes  that,  proper  re 
strictions  being  provided,  the  rule  should  be 
applied  impartially  to  all;  and  those  individuals, 
whether  white  or  black,  should  be  admitted  to 
the  rights  of  citizenship  who  measure  up  to  the 
full  standard  of  citizenship.) 

A  certain  element  among  the  Negroes  are 
good  citizens,  and  are  becoming  better  citizens 
all  the  time.  When  this  element  shall  have 
broken  away  from  the  false  teaching  which  has 
been  their  bane,  they  will  have  no  need  to  ask 
for  outside  aid.  The  South  will  recognize  their 
value,  and  their  reward  will  be  the  clear  dis 
tinction  between  them  and  the  ignorant  element 
which  now  weighs  them  down. 

It  has  long  appeared  to  the  writer  that  the 


THE  SOUTHERNER'S   PROBLEM      159 

prime  necessity  of  the  Negroes  is  to  learn  to 
distinguish  between  Negroes  and  Negroes;  be 
tween  the  law-abiding  and  self-respecting  Ne 
gro  and  the  lawbreaker  and  blackguard;  be 
tween  the  honest  man  and  the  thief;  the  decent 
man  and  the  dive- frequenter;  the  good  citizen 
and  the  u  tough  " — in  other  words,  to  create  for 
themselves  some  standard  of  virtue  and  right 
living  for  both  men  and  women  according  to 
which  they  shall  be  classified.  Not  the  least 
evil  of  the  solidifying  of  the  Negro  race  during 
the  period  of  reconstruction  was  the  destruction 
of  all  distinctions  between  virtue  and  vice,  as 
a  qualification  for  civic  promotion.  After  thirty 
years  the  upright,  law-abiding,  conservative  Ne 
gro  is  bound  by  that  manacle  to  the  thief  and 
the  evil-liver,  and  strangely  enough  he  mainly 
appears  unwilling  to  help  break  the  shackles 
which  hold  him  down. 

These  laws  give  him  a  chance  to  break  away 
from  his  burden,  if  he  but  has  the  sense  to  see 
it.  It  will  tend  to  break  up  the  dense  solidarity 
of  the  Negroes,  and  will  give  the  best  among 
them — that  is,  the  conservative,  the  industrious, 
the  thrifty,  and  the  enlightened — an  opportu 
nity  to  rise  and  range  themselves  in  a  class  where 
they  will  be  freed  from  the  burden  of  the  igno- 


160  THE  NEGRO: 

rant  mass  which  weighs  them  down,  and  may 
form  a  better  class  to  which  the  others  may  as 
pire.  And  this  the  writer  esteems  a  supreme 
necessity.  It  leaves  open  the  avenue  by  which 
all  who  are  capable  may  reenter  the  former 
field,  not  as  Negroes  who  are  admitted  simply 
as  such,  however  feeble  and  dull  they  may  be, 
but  as  men  who  are  admitted  because  they  are 
strong  and  intelligent. 

The  Negro  as  a  race,  considered  and  acting 
solidly,  may  be  a  burden  and  a  menace;  but 
many  Negroes  are  good  men  and  good  citizens. 
They  contribute  their  part  to  the  public  wealth 
and  are  on  every  ground  of  justice  and  sound 
policy  entitled  to  consideration. 

This  upper  fraction  of  the  race,  relieved  from 
the  incubus  of  the  great  body  which  they  have 
been  forced  to  carry  as  it  were  on  their  backs, 
would  inevitably  secure  political  representation 
in  the  South  precisely  as  they  have  secured  it  in 
the  North.  They  would  before  long  probably 
have  the  intelligence  to  divide  upon  all  economic 
questions  just  as  any  other  race  divides,  and  the 
whites,  released  from  the  necessity  of  maintain 
ing  a  solidarity,  would  likewise  be  free  to  divide, 
in  which  case  there  would  always  be  an  induce 
ment  to  secure  rather  than  to  repress  the  Negro 
vote. 


THE  SOUTHERNER'S   PROBLEM      161 

A  possible  step  in  reaching  the  solution  of 
the  question  might  be  for  a  reasonably  limited 
number  of  representative  Southern  men  to  meet 
in  conference  a  reasonable  number  of  those  col 
ored  men  of  the  South  who  are  more  familiar 
with  actual  conditions  there,  and  thus  are  repre 
sentative  of  the  most  enlightened  and  experi 
enced  portion  of  that  race.  These,  in  a  spirit 
of  kindness  and  of  justice,  might  confer  to 
gether  and  try  to  find  some  common  ground  on 
which  both  shall  stand,  and  formulate  some 
common  measures  as  to  which  both  sides  shall 
agree  and  which  both  shall  advocate. 

One  guiding  principle  should  be,  that  having 
established  a  law  to  eliminate  forthwith  the  ig 
norant  Negro  and  henceforth  all  ignorance,  this 
law  should  be  administered  honestly,  bravely, 
and  impartially. 

It  is  not  imagined  that  such  a  conference 
could  settle  the  question,  but  at  least  it  would 
throw  some  light  on  it,  and  it  would  serve  two 
good  purposes.  It  would  be  a  starting  point 
for  securing  information  which  would  com 
mand  respect,  and  it  would  show  what  the  most 
conservative  and  broad-minded  element  at  the 
South,  both  of  the  whites  and  of  the  blacks,  who 
know  the  subject  thoroughly  and  have  no  per- 


162  THE  NEGRO: 

sonal  interest  to  subserve  except  that  arising 
from  the  just  and  reasonable  settlement  of  this 
vital  problem,  think  of  it,  after  they  have  had 
the  fullest  means  of  securing  information. 

Meantime,  let  the  politician  and  the  doctri 
naire,  if  they  are  truly  the  Negro's  friends,  hold 
hands  off.  The  best  service  the  Negro's  best 
friend  can  render  him  is  to  tell  him  the  truth. 
The  direst  injury  the  Negro's  worst  enemy  can 
do  him  is  to  perpetuate  hostility  between  him 
and  the  Southern  White.  Left  to  themselves 
they  would  settle  the  question  along  economic 
lines,  and  this  it  must  come  to  at  last. 

However  one  side  or  the  other  may  dogma 
tize,  it  is  safe  to  assume  that  any  final  settlement 
of  the  problem  must  be  one  that  will  commend 
itself  to  the  body  of  the  intelligent  whites  at 
the  South.  No  other  settlement  will  ever  be 
final. 


CHAPTER   VI 
THE   OLD-TIME   NEGRO 

I 

THAT  the  "  old-time  Negro  "  is  passing 
away  is  one  of  the  common  sayings 
all  over  the  South,  where  once  he 
was  as  well  known  as  the  cotton-plant  and  the 
oak  tree.  Indeed,  he  has  become  so  rare  that 
even  now  when  a  gray  and  wrinkled  survivor  is 
found  he  is  regarded  as  an  exceptional  char 
acter,  and  he  will  soon  be  as  extinct  as  the  dodo. 
That  he  will  leave  a  gap  which  can  hardly  be 
filled  is  as  certain  as  that  the  old-time  cavalier 
or  the  foster-father  of  romance  has  left  his  gap. 
The  "  new  issue  "  at  which  the  old-time  Ne 
gro,  who  had  been  the  servant  and  the  associate 
of  gentlemen,  once  turned  up  his  nose  from  his 
well-secured  position,  and  of  which  he  spoke  in 
terms  of  scornful  reprobation,  has,  with  the 
passing  of  time,  pushed  him  from  his  stool,  and 
is  no  longer  the  "  new  issue,"  but  the  general 
type  that  prevails  commonly — the  Negro  with 

163 


1 64  THE  NEGRO: 

his  problem;  a  problem  which  it  may,  as  has 
been  well  said  by  Mr.  Root,  take  all  the  wis 
dom,  all  the  forbearance,  and  all  the  resolution 
of  the  white  race  to  solve. 

Some  of  the  "  Afro-Americans,"  with  the 
veneer  of  a  so-called  education,  to  .judge  from 
recent  works  written  by  certain  of  them,  pre 
sume  to  look  down  somewhat  scornfully  on  this 
notable  development  of  their  race,  and  assume 
a  fine  scorn  of  the  relation  which  once  existed 
all  over  the  South  between  the  old-time  South 
erner  and  the  old-time  darky,  and  which  still 
exists  where  the  latter  still  survives. 

They  do  not  consider  that  large  numbers  of 
this  class  held  positions  of  responsibility  and 
trust,  which  they  discharged  with  a  fidelity  and 
success  that  is  the  strongest  proof  of  the  poten 
tiality  of  the  race.  They  do  not  reckon  that 
warm  friendship  which  existed  between  master 
and  servant,  and  which  more  than  any  other 
one  thing  gives  promise  of  future  and  abiding 
friendship  between  the  races  when  left  to  settle 
their  relations  without  outside  interference. 

One  going  through  the  South  now — even 
through  those  parts  where  the  old-time  darky 
was  once  the  regular  and  ordinary  picture — un 
less  he  should  happen  to  drift  into  some  se- 


THE   SOUTHERNER'S   PROBLEM      165 

eluded  region  so  far  out  of  the  sweep  of  the 
current  that  its  life  has  been  caught  as  in  an 
eddy,  would  never  know  what  the  old  life  had 
been,  and  what  the  old-time  Negroes  were  in 
that  life.  Their  memory  is  still  cherished  in 
the  hearts  of  those  to  whom  they  stood  in  a  re 
lation  which  cannot  be  explained  to  and  cannot 
be  understood  by  those  who  did  not  know  it  as 
a  vital  part  of  their  home-life.  Even  these  will 
soon  have  passed  from  the  stage,  and  in  an 
other  decade  or  two  the  story  of  that  relation, 
whose  roots  were  struck  deep  in  the  sacredest 
relations  of  life,  will  be  only  a  tradition  kept 
alive  for  a  generation  or  two,  but  gradually 
fading  until  it  is  quite  blurred  out  by  time. 

Curiously,  whatever  the  Southerners  may 
think  of  slavery — and  there  were  many  who 
reprobated  its  existence — whatever  they  may 
think  of  "  the  Negro  "  of  to-day,  there  is 
scarcely  one  who  knew  the  Negro  in  his  old  re 
lation  who  does  not  speak  of  him  with  sym 
pathy  and  think  of  him  with  tenderness.  The 
writer  has  known  men  begin  to  discuss  new  con 
ditions  fiercely,  and  on  falling  to  talking  of  the 
past,  drift  into  reminiscences  of  old  servants 
and  turn  away  to  wipe  their  eyes.  And  not  the 
least  part  of  the  bitterness  of  the  South  over 


1 66  THE  NEGRO: 

the  Negro  question  as  it  has  existed  grows  out 
of  resentment  at  the  destruction  of  what  was 
once  a  relation  of  warm  friendship  and  tender 
sympathy. 

Of  African  slavery  it  may  be  said  that  what 
ever  its  merits  and  demerits,  it  divided  this  coun 
try  into  two  sections,  with  opposing  interests, 
and  finally  plunged  it  into  a  vast  and  terrible 
war.  This  is  condemnation  enough. 

One  need  not  be  an  advocate  of  slavery  be 
cause  he  upsets  ideas  that  have  no  foundation 
whatever  in  truth  and  sets  forth  facts  that  can 
be  substantiated  by  the  experience  of  thousands 
who  knew  them  at  first  hand. 


II 

IT  is  well  known  by  those  who  knew  the  old 
plantation-life  that  there  were  marked  divisions 
between  the  Negroes.  There  were  among  them 
what  might  almost  be  termed  different  orders. 
These  were  graded  by  the  various  relations 
in  which  the  individuals  stood  to  the  "  white 
folks  " — that  is,  to  the  master  and  mistress  and 
their  family. 

The  house-servants  represented  a  class  quite 
distinct  from  and  quite  above  the  "  field-hands," 


THE   SOUTHERNER'S   PROBLEM      167 

of  whom  they  were  wont  to  speak  scornfully  as 
"  cornfield  niggers,"  while  among  the  former 
were  degrees  as  clearly  defined  as  ever  existed 
in  an  English  gentleman's  house,  where  the 
housekeeper  and  the  butler  held  themselves 
above  the  rest  of  the  servants,  only  admitting 
to  occasional  fellowship  the  lady's  maid. 

Among  the  first  in  station  were  the  mammy, 
the  butler,  the  body-servant,  the  carriage-driver, 
the  ladies'  maids,  the  cook,  and  the  gardener, 
with,  after  an  interval,  the  "  boys  "  who  were 
attached  to  one  or  the  other  position  as  assist 
ants  and  were  in  training  for  the  places  when 
the  elders  should  fail.  Among  the  "  field- 
hands  "  was,  first,  the  "  head  man."* 

The  "  head  man  "  was  the  equal  of  any  other 
servant — a  rank  due,  perhaps,  partly  to  his  au 
thority  and  partly  to  the  character  that  brought 
him  this  authority.  He  was  the  foreman,  or 
assistant  superintendent  of  the  plantation.  He 
carried  the  keys;  he  called  the  hands  to  work; 
directed  them,  and  was,  to  some  extent,  in  au 
thority  over  them.  Such  a  one  I  knew,  mighty 

*  The  name  "driver"  was  unknown  in  Virginia,  whatever 
it  may  have  been  in  the  South.  And  the  "driver"  of  slave- 
horror  novels  was  as  purely  the  creature  of  the  imagination 
as  Cerberus,  or  the  Chimera. 


1 68  THE  NEGRO: 

in  word  and  act,  who  towered  above  the  hands 
he  led,  a  "  head  man/'  indeed. 

A  somewhat  inaccurate  idea  prevails  of  the 
Southern  plantation  life,  due,  possibly,  to  the 
highly  colored  pictures  that  have  been  painted 
of  it  in  books  of  a  romantic  order,  in  which 
the  romance  much  outweighed  the  ha'penny- 
worth  of  verisimilitude.  The  current  idea  is 
that  a  Southern  plantation  was  generally  a  great 
estate,  teeming  with  black  slaves  who  groaned 
under  the  lash  of  the  drivers  and  at  night  were 
scourged  to  their  dungeons,  while  their  masters 
revelled  in  ill-used  luxury  and  steeped  them 
selves  in  licentiousness,  not  stopping  at  times 
to  "  traffic  in  their  own  flesh  and  blood." 

It  may  be  well  to  say  in  the  outset  that  noth 
ing  could  be  further  from  the  truth. 

There  were  great  estates,  but  they  were  not 
numerous.  There  were,  possibly,  a  score  of 
persons  in  Virginia  who  owned  over  three  hun 
dred  slaves,  and  ten  or  a  dozen  who  owned 
over  five  hundred.  Such  estates  were  kept  up 
in  a  certain  style  which  almost  always  accom 
panies  large  wealth.  But  the  great  majority 
of  the  plantations  in  Virginia,  and,  so  far  as 
my  reading  and  observation  have  gone,  else 
where,  however  extensive  were  the  lands,  were 


THE  SOUTHERNER'S   PROBLEM      169 


modest  and  simple,  and  the  relation  between 
masters  and  servants  was  one  of  close  personal 
acquaintance  and  friendliness,  beginning  at  the 
cradle  and  scarcely  ending  at  the  grave. 

At  the  outbreak  of  the  war,  while  the  num 
ber  of  the  white  population  of  the  Southern 
States  was  about  thirteen  millions,  the  number 
of  slave-owners  and  slave-hirers,  including  those 
who  owned  or  hired  but  one  slave,  was,  per 
haps,  less  than  half  a  million;  that  is,,  of  the 
adult  whites,  men  and  women,  estimating  them 
as  one-fifth  each  of  the  population,  less  than 
one  in  ten  owned  or  hired  slaves.* 

*  In  Georgia,  for  example,  as  shown  by  the  investigation 
of  Professor  Du  Bois,  one  of  the  best  educated  and  trained 
colored  men  in  the  South,  there  were,  in  1860,  455,698  ne 
groes  and  591,550  whites.  Of  these,  there  were  3,500  free 
negroes  and  462,195  slaves  owned  by  40,773  slave-holders, 
or  about  10%  to  each  slave-holder. 

Of  these  slave-holders, 

1 6  per  cent,  of  all — 6,713  owned     I  slave. 
10         " 
8        " 


—4,353 

2  slaves. 

"  -3,482 

3 

2,984 

4 

2,543 

5 

2,213 

6        " 

1,839 

7 

1,647 

8 

1,415 

9        " 

4,707 

10  or    under 

15  slaves. 

2,523 

*5  " 

20        " 

2,910 

20    " 

30        " 

THE  NEGRO: 

Thus,  while  slavery  on  the  great  plantations, 
where  the  slaves  numbered  several  hundreds, 
was  liable  to  such  abuses  as  spring  readily  from 
absenteeism,  on  most  of  the  plantations  the 
slaves  and  the  masters  were  necessarily  brought 
into  fairly  close  contact,  and  the  result  of  this 
contact  was  the  relation  of  friendship  which  has 
been  the  wonder  and  the  mystification  of  those 
who  considered  slavery  the  sum  of  all  the  vil 
lainies. 

The  chief  idea  that  prevails  as  to  the  relation 
is  taken  from  a  work  of  fiction  which,  as  a  po 
litical  pamphlet  written  under  the  stress  of  deep 
feeling,  whatever  truth  it  had  as  basis,  certainly 
does  not  present  a  true  picture. 

Work  was  parcelled  out  among  the  "  hands," 

1,400  owned  30  or   under   40  slaves 


739 

40  ' 

50 

729 

5°  \ 

70 

373 
181 

100  ' 

100 
2OO 

23 

200  ' 

300 

7 

300  « 

500 

i 

5OO  ' 

I,OOO 

From  this  table  it  will  be  seen  that  6,713,  or  about  16^2 
per  cent.,  owned  only  one  slave,  10/4  per  cent,  owned  only 
two  slaves,  and  50  per  cent,  owned  five  slaves  or  fewer,  while 
66  per  cent.  (27,191)  owned  under  ten  slaves;  1,102  owned 
between  fifty  and  one  hundred,  and  but  212  owned  over  one 
hundred,  while  only  twenty-three  owned  over  two  hundred. 


THE  SOUTHERNERS   PROBLEM      171 

the  "  hands  "  being  divided  into  sections :  pough- 
hands,  drivers,  hoe-hands,  etc. 

Their  homes  were  known  as  "  the  quarters." 
On  the  larger  plantations  they  were  divided  by 
streets. 

On  the  plantation  which  the  writer  knew 
best,  there  were  several  double-cabins  on  the 
quarters-hill  and  three  or  four  facing  on  the 
backyard.  In  one  of  the  latter  was  a  room 
which  was  the  joy  of  his  heart,  and  which,  after 
forty  years,  is  still  touched  with  a  light  more 
radiant  than  many  a  palace  apartment  he  has 
seen.  It  was  known  as  "  Unc'  Balla's  room," 
and  its  occupant  was  so  great  a  man  to  me  that 
in  his  own  field  I  have  never  known  his  superior. 
"  Uncle  Balla  "  was  the  carriage-driver,  and 
not  from  Jehu  down  was  ever  one  who,  in  the 
writer's  mind,  could  equal  him  in  handling  the 
reins.  He  was  the  guide,  philosopher,  and 
friend  of  my  boyhood.  And  no  better,  saner,  or 
more  right-minded  guide  ever  lived. 

In  that  room  were  "  chists,"  which  I  even 
now  think  of  with  an  indrawing  of  the  breath, 
as  I  imagine  their  precious  and  unexplored  con 
tents.  Verily,  they  must  have  held  golden  in 
gots  !  Then,  there  was  his  cobbler's  bench,  for 
he  was  a  harness-maker  and  cobbler — and  his 


172  THE  NEGRO: 

cooper's  bench,  for  he  made  the  noggins  and 
piggins  and  pails  for  the  milkmaids  and  house 
wives,  deriving  therefrom  a  little  income.  And 
when  it  came  to  horses!  As  I  have  sat  and 
heard  the  learned  at  races  and  horse-shows  air 
their  knowledge,  I  have  often  been  filled  with 
a  sudden  longing  that  Uncle  Balla  were  there 
to  show  what  real  knowledge  was. 

He  lived  for  thirty  years  after  the  war  in  a 
little  house  on  the  edge  of  the  plantation,  and 
when  he  began  to  fail  he  was  brought  home, 
where  he  could  be  better  looked  after.  At  the 
end,  his  funeral  services  were  conducted  from 
the  front  portico  and  he  was  followed  to  the 
grave  by  white  and  black. 

Each  cabin  had,  or  might  have  had,  its  little 
yard  and  garden,  and  each  family  had  its 
chicken-house  and  yard. 

On  the  larger  plantations,  where  the  Negroes 
numbered  two  hundred  or  more,  nearly  every 
thing  was  made  by  them,  so  that  such  an  estate 
was  a  little  world  in  itself,  substantially  self- 
supporting.  On  our  place,  while  the  spinning 
and  weaving  and  the  carpentry-work  were  done 
on  the  place,  most  of  the  cloth  for  clothing  and 
the  shoes  were  bought  in  town  in  the  spring 
and  autumn,  and  the  tailor  and  cobbler  kept 


THE  SOUTHERNER'S   PROBLEM      173 

them  in  order.  In  purchasing  the  shoes,  each 
person  brought  his  measure,  a  stick  the  exact 
length  of  his  foot.  This  stick  had  certain 
marks  or  notches  on  it,  and  the  Negro  kept  a 
duplicate,  by  which  to  identify  his  shoes  when 
they  arrived. 

Ill 

No  servants  or  retainers  of  any  race  ever 
identified  themselves  more  fully  with  their  mas 
ters.  The  relation  was  rather  that  of  retainers 
than  of  slaves.  It  began  in  the  infancy  of  both 
master  and  servant,  grew  with  their  growth, 
and  continued  through  life.  Such  a  relation 
does  not  now,  so  far  as  I  know,  exist,  except 
in  the  isolated  instances  of  old  families  who 
have  survived  all  the  chances  and  changes  with 
the  old  family  servants  still  hanging  on.  Cer 
tainly,  I  think,  it  did  not  exist  anywhere  else, 
unless,  perhaps,  on  the  country  estates  of  the 
gentry  in  England  and,  possibly,  in  parts  of 
France  and  Germany. 

This  relation  in  the  South  was  not  excep 
tional.  It  was  the  general,  if  not  the  universal 
rule.  The  servants  were  "  my  servants  "  or 
"  my  people  " ;  the  masters  were  to  the  servants, 
"  my  master  and  my  mistis,"  or  "  my  white 


174  THE  NEGRO: 

folks."  Both  pride  and  affection  spoke  in  that 
claim. 

In  fact,  the  ties  of  pride  were  such  that  it 
was  often  remarked  that  the  affection  of  the 
slaves  was  stronger  toward  the  whites  than 
toward  their  own  offspring.  This  fact,  which 
cannot  be  successfully  disputed,  has  been  re 
ferred  by  Professor  Shaler  to  a  survival  of  a 
tribal  instinct  which  preponderated  over  the 
family  instinct.  Others  may  possibly  refer  it 
to  the  fact  that  the  family  instinct  was,  owing 
to  the  very  nature  of  the  institution  of  slavery, 
not  allowed  to  take  deep  root.  Whatever  the 
cause,  it  does  not  appear  even  now  to  have 
taken  much  root,  at  least,  according  to  the 
standard  of  the  Anglo-Saxon,  a  race  whose  his 
tory  is  founded  upon  the  family  instinct. 

The  family  ties  among  the  Negroes  often  ap 
pear  to  be  scarcely  as  strong  now  as  they  were 
under  the  institution  of  slavery.  Marital  fidel 
ity  is,  if  we  are  to  believe  those  who  have  had 
good  opportunities  of  observation,  not  as  com 
mon  now  as  it  was  then.  The  instances  of  deser 
tion  of  husbands,  of  wives,  of  parents,  or  chil 
dren  would  possibly  offset  any  division  that  took 
place  under  that  institution. 

A   number  of  old   Negroes  whom   I   have 


THE   SOUTHERNER'S    PROBLEM      175 

known  have  been  abandoned  by  nearly  all  of 
their  children.  Often,  when  they  grow  up,  they 
leave  them  with  scarcely  less  unconcern  than  do 
any  order  of  the  lower  animals. 

The  oldest  son  of  our  dining-room  servant 
went  off  at  the  time  of  one  of  Sheridan's  raids 
and  was  never  heard  of  again  until  some  twenty 
years  after  the  war,  when  it  was  learjied  that 
he  was  a  fisherman  on  the  lower  James,  and 
although  he  lived,  and  may  be  living  yet,  within 
a  hundred  miles  of  his  old  home,  where  his 
father  and  mother  lived,  he  never  took  the 
trouble  even  to  communicate  with  them  once. 
The  next  son  went  off  to  the  South  after  the 
war,  and  the  only  time  that  he  ever  wrote  home, 
so  far  as  I  know,  was  when  he  wrote  to  ascer 
tain  his  age,  in  order  that  he  might  qualify  to 
vote.  The  same  may  be  said  of  many  others. 

The  Mammy  was,  perhaps,  the  most  impor 
tant  of  the  servants,  as  she  was  also  the  closest 
intimate  of  the  family.  She  was,  indeed,  an 
actual  member  of  the  household.  She  was  usu 
ally  selected  in  her  youth  to  be  the  companion 
of  the  children  by  reason  of  her  being  the  child 
of  some  favored  servant  and,  as  such,  likely  to 
possess  sense,  amiability,  judgment,  and  the 


176  THE  NEGRO: 

qualities  which  gave  promise  of  character  and 
efficiency.  So  she  grew  up  in  intercourse  with 
the  girls  of  the  family,  and  when  they  married 
she  became,  in  turn,  the  nurse  and  assistant  to 
the  old  mammy,  and  then  the  mammy  of  her 
young  mistress's  children,  and,  after,  of  their 
children. 

She  has  never  been  adequately  described. 
Chiefly,  I  fancy,  because  it  was  impossible  to 
describe  her  as  she  was. 

Who  may  picture  a  mother?  We  may  dab 
and  dab  at  it,  but  when  we  have  done  our  best 
we  know  that  we  have  stuck  on  a  little  paint, 
and  the  eternal  verity  stands  forth  like  the  eter 
nal  verity  of  the  Holy  Mother,  outside  our 
conception,  only  to  be  apprehended  in  our  high 
est  moments,  and  never  to  be  truly  pictured  by 
pen  or  pencil. 

So,  no  one  can  describe  what  the  Mammy 
was,  and  only  those  can  apprehend  her  who 
were  rocked  on  her  generous  bosom,  slept  on 
her  bed,  fed  at  her  table,  were  directed  and 
controlled  by  her,  watched  by  her  unsleeping 
eye,  and  led  by  her  precept  in  the  way  of  truth, 
justice,  and  humanity. 

She  was  far  more  than  a  servant.  She  was 
a  member  of  the  family  in  high  standing  and 


THE  SOUTHERNER'S   PROBLEM      177 

of  unquestioned  influence.  She  was  her  mis 
tress's  coadjutress  and  her  wise  adviser,  and 
where  the  children  were  concerned,  she  was  next 
to  her  in  authority. 

My  father's  mammy,  old  Krenda,  was  said 
to  have  been  an  African  princess,  and  whether 
there  was  any  other  foundation  for  the  idea 
than  her  commanding  presence  and  character, 
I  know  not;  but  these  were  unquestionable. 
Her  aphorisms  have  been  handed  down  in  the 
family  since  her  time.  Among  them  was  one 
which  has  a  smack  of  the  old  times  and  at  least 
indicates  that  she  had  not  visited  some  modern 
cities:  "Good  manners  will  cyah  you  whar 
money  won't." 

I  remember  my  mammy  well,  though  she 
died  when  I  was  a  child.  Her  name  was  Lydia, 
and  she  was  the  daughter  of  old  Betty,  who 
had  been  my  great-grandmother's  maid.  Betty 
used  to  read  to  her  mistress  during  the  latter 
years  of  her  life  when  she  was  blind.  Lydia 
had  been  my  mother's  mammy  before  she  was 
mine  and  my  brother's,  and  she  had  the  author 
ity  and  prestige  of  having  been  such. 

After  forty-five  years,  I  recall  with  mingled 
affection  and  awe  my  mammy's  dignity,  force, 
and  kindness;  her  snowy  bed,  where  I  was  put 


178  THE  NEGRO: 

to  sleep  in  the  little  up-stairs  room,  sealed  with 
pictures  from  the  illustrated  papers  and  with 
fashion-plates,  in  which  her  artistic  feeling 
found  its  vent;  I  recall  also  the  delicious  "  bis 
cuit-bread  "  she  made,  which  we  thought  better 
than  that  of  all  the  cooks  and  bakers  in  the 
world.  In  one  corner  stood  her  tea-table,  with 
her  "  tea-things,"  her  tea  and  white  sugar. 

I  remember,  too,  the  exercise  of  her  author 
ity,  and  recall,  at  least  two  "  good  whippings  " 
that  she  gave  me. 

One  curious  recollection  that  remains  is 
of  a  discussion  between  her  and  one  of  her 
young  mistresses  on  the  subject  of  slavery,  in 
which  the  latter  fell  back  on  what  is,  possibly, 
one  of  the  strongest  arguments  of  the  slave 
holder,  the  Bible,  and  asserted  that  God  had 
put  each  of  them  in  their  places.  It  may  be 
left  to  the  reader  to  say  which  had  the  better 
of  the  argument.  The  interest  of  the  matter 
now  is  rather  academic  than  practical. 

A  few  days  before  my  mammy's  death  she 
made  her  will,  dividing  her  "  things,"  for  such 
wills  were  as  strictly  observed  as  if  they  had 
been  admitted  to  probate.  Among  her  bequests 
her  feather-bed  and  pillows  were  left  to  my 
elder  brother.  She  made  my  mother  bring  a 


THE  SOUTHERNER'S   PROBLEM      179 

pen  and  write  his  name  on  the  bed  and  pillows. 
And  these  pillows  are  now  in  his  rectory. 

It  was  from  our  mammies  that  we  learned 
those  delightful  stories  of  "  Brer  Fox  "  and 
"  Brer  Hyah,"  which  the  children  of  a  later 
generation  have  learned  through  the  magic  pen 
of  "  Uncle  Remus."  It  was  from  them  also 
that  we  learned  many  of  the  lessons  of  morality 
and  truth. 

Next  to  the  mammy  in  point  of  dignity  was, 
of  right,  the  butler.  He  held  much  the  same 
position  that  is  held  by  the  butler  in  English 
houses.  He  was  a  person  in  authority,  and  he 
looked  that  every  inch.  He  had  his  ideas,  and 
they  usually  prevailed.  He  was  the  governor 
of  the  young  children,  the  mentor  of  the  young 
men,  and  their  counsellor  even  after  they  had 
grown  up. 

Some  of  my  readers  may  have  seen  in  some 
hotel  a  Negro  head-waiter  who  was  a  model 
of  dignity  and  of  grave  authority — a  field-mar 
shal  in  ebony — doing  the  honors  of  his  dining- 
room  like  a  court  chamberlain,  and  ruling  his 
subordinates  with  the  authority  of  a  benignant 
despot.  Such  a  one  was  probably  some  gentle 
man's  butler,  who  had  risen  by  his  abilities  to  be 
the  chief  of  the  dining-room. 


i8o  THE  NEGRO: 

More  than  one  such  character  rises  before 
me  from  the  past,  and  the  stories  of  their  au 
thority  are  a  part  of  the  traditional  record  of 
every  family.  The  most  imposing  one  that  I 
personally  remember  was  "  Uncle  Tom,"  the 
butler  of  a  cousin,  whose  stateliness  impressed 
my  childhood's  fancy  in  a  way  which  has  never 
been  effaced.  I  have  seen  monarchs  less  im 
pressive.  His  authority  was  so  well  recognized 
that  he  used  to  be  called  in  to  make  the  children 
take  their  physic. 

It  was  said  that  one  of  the  children,  who  is 
now  a  matron  of  great  dignity  and  a  grand 
mother,  once,  in  an  awed  whisper,  asked  her 
grandmother,  who  was  the  mistress  of  "  Uncle 
Tom  "  and  of  several  hundred  other  servants, 
"  Gran'ma,  is  you  feared  o'  Unc'  Tom?  "  And 
her  grandmother,  who  told  the  story,  used  to 
add:  "  And  you  know  the  truth  is,  I  am." 

It  was  a  cousin  of  hers,  Mrs.  Carter,  of  Shir 
ley,  who  used  to  say  that  when  she  invited  com 
pany  she  always  had  to  break  it  to  Clarissy,  her 
maid. 

In  truth,  whatever  limitation  there  was  on 
the  unstinted  hospitality  of  the  South  was  due 
to  the  fact  that  the  servants  were  always  con 
sidered  in  such  matters. 


THE  SOUTHERNER'S   PROBLEM      181 

This  awe  of  the  butler  in  his  grandeur  often 
did  not  pass  away  with  youth.  He  both  de 
manded  and  received  his  due  respect  even  from 
grown  members  of  the  family.  Of  one  that  I 
knew  it  is  told  now  by  gray-headed  men  how, 
on  occasion,  long  after  they  were  grown,  he 
would  correct  their  manners,  even  at  table,  by 
a  little  rap  on  the  head  and  a  whispered  re 
proof,  as  he  leaned  over  them  to  place  a  dish. 
And  I  never  knew  one  who  did  not  retain  his 
position  of  influence  and  exercise  his  right  of 
admonition. 

I  have  known  butlers  to  take  upon  themselves 
the  responsibility  of  saying  what  young  gentle 
men  should  be  admitted  as  visitors  at  the  house, 
and  to  whom  the  ladies  should  be  denied.  In 
fact,  every  wise  young  man  used  to  be  at  pains 
to  make  friends  with  the  old  servants,  for  they 
were  a  sagacious  class  and  their  influence  in  the 
household  was  not  inconsiderable.  They  had 
an  intuitive  knowledge,  which  amounted  to  an 
instinct,  for  "  winnowing  the  grain  from  the 
chaff,"  and  they  knew  a  "  gent'man  "  at  sight. 
Their  acute  and  caustic  comments  have  wrecked 
the  chances  of  many  an  aspiring  young  suitor 
who  failed  to  meet  with  their  approval. 


1 82  THE  NEGRO: 


IV 


THERE  is  a  universal  belief  that  the  Negroes 
under  slavery  had  no  education.  I  have  seen 
it  stated  a  number  of  times  that  it  was  made  a 
crime  by  law,  in  every  State  of  the  South,  to 
teach  one  to  read.  Such  a  statement  is  not  true.* 
Teaching  them  was  not  encouraged,  generally, 
and  such  laws  existed  at  one  time  in  four  of 
the  States  of  the  South;  but  they  did  not 
exist  in  Virginia.  Several  of  our  Negroes  could 
read,  and  if  it  was  not  the  same  on  most  of 
the  plantations,  it  was  at  least  the  same  on 
those  of  which  I  had  any  knowledge.  My  great- 
grandmother's  maid  used,  I  have  heard,  to  read 
to  her  regularly,  and  in  our  family  the  ladies 
used  to  teach  the  girls  as  much  as  they  would 
learn.  But  apart  from  book-learning,  they  had, 

*  As  to  the  education  of  the  Negroes:  See  Report  of 
U.  S.  Commissioner  of  Education,  1901,  vol.  i,  p.  745, 
et  seq.,  for  a  valuable  paper  by  Prof.  Kelly  Miller,  one  of 
the  most  intelligent  colored  men  in  the  country.  Citing 
the  Report  of  U.  S.  Commissioner  of  Education,  1868,  he 
shows  that  such  laws  were  adopted  in  Alabama,  Georgia, 
Louisiana,  and  South  Carolina,  about  1830-34.  While  in 
Virginia  in  1831,  as  in  Delaware  in  1863,  all  public  meet 
ings  were  prohibited.  These  laws  grew  out  of  the  Nat 
Turner  Insurrection.  V.  Appendix. 


THE   SOUTHERNER'S   PROBLEM      183 

especially  the  house-servants,  the  education 
which  comes  from  daily  association  with  people 
of  culture,  and  it  was  an  education  not  to  be 
despised.  Some  gentlemen  carried  on  a  cor 
respondence  about  home  affairs  with  their  but 
lers  during  their  absence  from  home.  For  in 
stance,  I  recall  hearing  that  when  Mr.  Abel 
P.  Upshur  was  Secretary  of  the  Navy,  some 
gentlemen  were  at  his  house,  and  were  discuss 
ing  at  table  some  public  matter,  when  the  butler 
gave  them  the  latest  news  about  it,  saying  that 
he  had  that  morning  received  a  letter  from  his 
master. 

There  is  an  idea  that  the  Negroes  were  in  the 
state  of  excitement  and  agonized  expectancy  of 
freedom  that  the  Anglo-Saxon  race  felt  it  would 
have  been  in  under  similar  circumstances. 
Much  is  made,  at  certain  kinds  of  meetings,  of 
the  great  part  which  they  contributed  toward 
saving  the  Union.  Discussion  of  this  may  be  set 
aside  as  bordering  on  the  controversial.  But  it 
may  not  be  outside  of  this  phase  of  the  matter, 
and  it  will  throw  some  light  on  it  to  state  briefly 
what  was  the  attitude  of  the  Negro  slave  popu 
lation  toward  the  quarrel  between  the  North 
and  the  South. 

The  total  number  of  Negro  enlistments  and 


1 84  THE  NEGRO: 

reenlistments  on  the  Federal  side  was  between 
189,000  and  190,000.  When  it  is  considered 
that  this  embraced  all  the  soldier  element  of 
the  Negroes  in  the  North  and  of  the  refugee 
element  in  the  South,  who  were  induced  to 
enter  the  army,  either  by  persuasion  of  boun 
ties  or  under  stress  of  compulsion,  whether 
of  military  draft  or  of  "  belly-pinching,"  the 
number  does  not  appear  large.  After  midsum 
mer,  1863,  the  North  occupied  the  States  of 
Maryland,  Missouri,  Kentucky,  half  of  Vir 
ginia,  of  Tennessee,  of  Louisiana,  of  Arkansas, 
of  Mississippi,  and  considerable  portions  of  the 
Carolinas  and  Alabamas.  That  is,  she  occu 
pied  a  third,  and  nearer  a  half,  of  the  entire 
slave-holding  territory  of  the  South,  while  the 
penetration  of  her  raiding  parties  into  the  re 
gions  occupied  by  the  Southern  troops  fur 
nished,  at  times,  opportunity  to,  possibly,  a 
fourth  of  the  young  men  of  that  section  to  es 
cape  from  bondage  had  they  been  moved  by 
the  passion  of  freedom.  It  is  at  once  a  refuta 
tion  of  the  charge  of  the  cruelty  of  slavery,  so 
commonly  accepted,  and  an  evidence  of  the 
easy-going  amiability  and  docility  of  the  Ne 
gro  race  that,  under  all  the  excitement  and 
through  all  the  opportunities  and  temptations 


THE  SOUTHERNER'S   PROBLEM      185 

surrounding  them,  they  should  not  only  have 
remained  faithful  to  their  masters,  but  that  the 
stress  of  the  time  should  have  appeared  to  weld 
the  bond  between  them. 

That  there  was  a  wild  and  adventurous  ele 
ment  among  them  is  well  known.  It  was  to 
be  expected,  and  was  an  element  in  whom  the 
instincts  of  wild  life  in  the  jungle  and  the  for 
ests  survived.  Every  large  plantation  had  one 
or  more  who  had  the  runaway  spirit  keenly 
alive.  There  were  several  on  our  place.  They 
ran  away  when  they  were  crossed  in  love  or 
in  any  other  desire  of  their  hearts.  They  ran 
away  if  they  were  whipped,  and,  as  they  were 
the  shirkers  and  loafers  on  the  plantations,  if 
anyone  was  whipped,  it  was  likely  to  be  one 
of  them.  Yet,  curiously  enough,  if  a  runaway 
was  caught  and  was  whipped,  he  was  very  un 
likely  to  run  off  again  until  the  spirit  seized 
him,  when  nothing  on  earth  could  stop  him.* 

One  other  class  was  likely  to  furnish  the  ele- 

*  We  had  three  or  four  such  young  men  on  our  plantation, 
and  although  the  plantation  lay  within  two  or  three  miles  of 
the  roads  down  which  Sheridan  and  Stoneman  passed,  and 
within  twelve  or  fifteen  miles  of  those  along  which  Grant 
passed,  these  were  the  only  negroes  from  our  place  who  went 
off  during  the  war.  In  all,  four  young  men  left  us. 

If  anyone  wishes  to  get  an  insight  into  this  phase  of  the 


1 86  THE  NEGRO: 

ment  that  went  off,  and  this  was  the  "  pampered 
class."  House-servants  were  more  likely  to  go 
than  field-hands.  Their  ears  were  somehow 
more  attuned  to  the  song  of  the  siren.* 

Against  those  who  availed  themselves  of  the 
opportunities  offered  them  to  escape  from  the 
bondage  of  domestic  slavery  may  be  put  the 
great  body  of  the  Negro  race  who,  whether 
from  inability  to  grasp  the  vastness  of  the  boon 
of  liberty  held  out  to  them,  or  from  fear  of 
the  ills  they  knew  not  of,  or  from  sheer  con 
tent  with  a  life  where  the  toil  was  not  drudgery 
and  the  flesh-pots  overbalanced  the  idea  of 
freedom,  not  only  held  fast  to  their  masters, 
but  took  sides  with  them  with  a  quickened  feel 
ing  and  a  deepened  affection.  For  every  one 
who  fled  to  freedom,  possibly  one  hundred 
stood  by  their  masters'  wives  and  children. 

Doubtless  there  were  many — possibly,  the 
most  of  them — who  remained  from  sheer  in 
ertia  or  fear  to  leave.  But  a  far  larger  number 
identified  themselves  with  their  masters,  and 

negro  character  and  at  the  same  time  pass  a  delightful  half 
hour,  let  him  read  Harry  Stillwell  Edwards's  story,  "Two 
Runaways." 

*  That  very  "Uncle  Tom,"  of  whom  I  have  spoken  as  a 
stern  and  terrifying  spectacle  of  grandeur,  left  his  home  and 
went  to  Philadelphia. 


THE  SOUTHERNER'S   PROBLEM      187 

this  union  was  not  one  of  lip-service,  but  of 
sentiment,  of  heart  and  soul. 

In  truth,  they  were  infected  with  the  same 
spirit  and  ardor  that  filled  the  whites,  and  had 
the  South  called  for  volunteers  from  the  Ne 
groes,  I  question  not  that  they  could  have  got 
ten  half  a  million  men.* 

A  story  is  told  of  one  of  the  old  Negroes  who 
belonged  to  the  family  into  which  General 
Scott  married.  He  went  to  the  war  to  take  care 
of  one  of  his  young  masters.  He  had  no  doubt 
whatever  as  to  the  justice  of  the  cause,  but  Gen 
eral  Scott  was  to  his  mind  the  embodiment  of 
war  and  carnage,  and  the  General  had  espoused 
the  other  side.  This  disturbed  him  greatly,  and 
one  night  he  was  heard  praying  down  outside 
the  camp.  After  praying  for  everyone,  he 
prayed:  "  And  O  Lord,  please  to  convut  Marse 
Lieutenan'  Gen'l  Scott  and  turn  him  f'om  de 
urrer  o'  he  ways." 

The  devotion  of  slaves  to  their  masters  in 
time  of  war  is  no  new  thing  under  the  sun.  The 
fact  that  their  masters  are  in  arms  has  always, 
no  doubt,  borne  its  part  in  the  phenomenon. 
But  it  does  not  wholly  account  for  the  absolute 

*  Several  regiments  were  enlisted  in  the  beginning  of  the 
war,  but  the  plan  was  changed  and  they  were  disbanded. 


1 88  THE  NEGRO: 

devotion  of  the  Negroes.  It  is  to  the  eternal 
credit  at  once  of  the  Whites  and  of  the  Negroes 
that,  during  these  four  years  of  war,  when  the 
white  men  of  the  South  were  absent  in  the  field 
they  could  intrust  their  homes,  their  wives, 
their  children,  all  they  possessed,  to  the  guar 
dianship  and  care  of  their  slaves,  with  absolute 
confidence  in  their  fidelity.  And  this  trust  was 
never  violated.  The  Negroes  were  their  faith 
ful  guardians,  their  sympathizing  friends,  and 
their  shrewd  advisers,  guarding  their  property, 
enduring  necessary  denial  with  cheerfulness,  and 
identifying  themselves  with  their  masters'  fort 
unes  with  the  devotion,  not  of  slaves,  but  of 
clansmen. 

The  devotion  of  the  body-servants  to  their 
masters  in  the  field  is  too  well  known  almost 
to  need  mention,  and  what  is  said  of  them  in 
this  paper  is  owing  rather  to  the  feeling  that 
the  statement  of  the  fact  is  a  debt  due  to  the 
class  from  which  these  came  rather  than  to 
thinking  it  necessary  to  enlighten  the  reader. 

When  the  Southern  men  went  into  the  field 
there  was  always  a  contest  among  the  Negroes 
as  to  who  should  accompany  them.  Usually, 
the  choice  of  the  young  men  would  be  for  some 
of  the  younger  men  among  the  servants,  while 


THE   SOUTHERNER'S   PROBLEM      189 

the  choice  of  the  family  would  be  for  some  of 
the  older  and  more  staid  members  of  the  house 
hold,  who  would  be  prudent,  and  so,  more 
likely  to  take  better  care  of  their  masters.  And 
thus  there  was  much  heart-burning  among  the 
younger  Negroes,  who  were  almost  as  eager 
for  adventure  as  their  masters. 

Of  all  the  thousands  of  Negroes  who  went 
out  as  servants  with  their  masters,  I  have  never 
heard  of  one  who  deserted  to  the  North,  and 
I  have  known  of  many  who  had  abundant  op 
portunity  to  do  so.  Some  were  captured,  but 
escaped;  others  apparently  deserted,  but  re 
turned  laden  with  spoils. 

My  father's  body-servant,  Ralph  Woodson, 
served  with  him  throughout  the  entire  war. 
While  at  Petersburg,  where  the  armies  were 
within  a  mile  of  each  other,  he  was  punished 
for  getting  drunk  and  he  ran  away.  But  in 
stead  of  making  for  the  Union  lines  and  surren 
dering  to  a  Union  picket,  which  he  could  easily 
have  done,  he  started  for  home,  sixty  miles 
away.  He  was,  however,  arrested  as  a  strag 
gler  or  runaway,  and  my  father,  hearing  of 
him,  sent  and  brought  him  back  to  camp,  where 
he  remained  to  the  end. 

An  even  more  notable   instance  which  has 


190  THE  NEGRO: 

come  to  my  knowledge  was  that  of  Simon,  the 
servant  of  a  friend  of  mine.  He  disappeared 
from  camp  during  the  Spottsylvania  campaign, 
and  just  when  his  master  had  given  him  up  he 
reappeared  with  a  sack  full  of  all  sorts  of  things, 
useful  for  the  mess,  which  he  declared  "  dem 
gent'mens  on  the  other  side  had  gin  him."  He 
had  borrowed  of  the  Egyptians. 

The  letters  and  annals  of  the  time  are  full  of 
references  to  the  singular,  but  then  well-known 
fact,  that  while  the  people  of  the  South  gave 
their  sons  joyfully  to  the  cause,  they  were  most 
unwilling  to  allow  their  Negroes  to  go.  The 
reason  for  this  has  been  much  misapprehended. 
It  has  been  generally  supposed  outside  that  it 
was  because  they  were  afraid  to  lose  their  prop 
erty.  Nothing  could  be  more  unfounded. 
They  were  afraid  their  servants  might  be  hurt 
or  suffer  some  harm. 

Fathers  who  wrote  their  sons  to  be  always 
at  the  post  of  honor,  would  give  them  explicit 
directions  how  to  keep  their  servants  out  of 
danger.  The  war  in  some  way  was  concerned 
with  the  perpetuation  of  slavery,  and  it  was 
felt  that  it  was  not  just  to  expose  slaves  to  dan 
ger  when  such  was  the  case. 

Something  of  this  same   feeling  played  its 


THE   SOUTHERNER'S   PROBLEM      191 

part  in  the  decision  not  to  enlist  Negroes  in  the 
army  of  the  Confederacy. 

In  the  field  they  showed  both  courage  and 
sagacity,  and  many  are  the  instances  in  which, 
when  their  masters  were  wounded  and  left  on 
the  field,  they  hunted  for  them  through  scenes 
which  tested  men's  courage  as  much  as  the  battle 
itself.  The  records  of  the  time  are  full  of  such 
instances. 


WHEN  the  war  closed  and  the  Negroes  were 
set  free,  the  feeling  between  them  and  their  old 
masters  was  never  warmer,  the  bonds  of  friend 
ship  were  never  more  close.  The  devotion 
which  the  Negro  had  shown  during  the  long 
struggle  had  created  a  profound  impression  on 
the  minds  of  the  Southern  whites.  Even  be 
tween  the  Negroes  and  poorer  whites,  who  had 
always  been  rather  at  enmity,  a  better  feeling 
had  grown  up.  The  close  of  the  war  had  ac 
complished  what  all  the  emancipation  procla 
mations  could  not  effect.  Their  masters  uni 
versally  informed  their  servants  that  they  were 
free. 

I  remember  my  father's  return  from  Appo- 


192  THE  NEGRO: 

mattox.  For  days  he  had  been  watched  for. 
Appomattox  was  less  than  a  hundred  miles 
from  our  home.  The  news  of  the  surrender 
had  come  to  us  first  through  one  of  the  wagon- 
drivers,  who  told  it  weeping.  I  seem  to  see 
the  return  now — my  father  on  his  gray  horse, 
with  his  body-servant,  Ralph,  behind  him.  I 
remember  the  way  in  which,  as  he  slipped  from 
his  horse,  he  put  his  hand  over  his  face  to  hide 
his  tears,  and  his  groan,  "  I  never  expected  to 
come  home  so."  All  were  weeping.  A  few 
minutes  later  he  came  out  on  the  porch  and  said : 
"  Ralph,  you  are  free;  take  the  saddles  off  and 
turn  the  horses  out." 

He  had  carried  a  silver  half-dollar  all 
through  the  war,  saving  it  till  the  last  pinch. 
This  had  come  when  he  reached  the  river  on 
his  way  home.  The  ferryman  had  declined  to 
take  Confederate  money,  and  he  paid  him  his 
half-dollar  to  ferry  him  across. 

Such  was  the  end  of  slavery,  the  institution 
which  had  divided  this  country  in  twain,  and 
finally  had  convulsed  it  and  brought  on  a  ter 
rible  war. 

When  the  end  of  slavery  came  there  was, 
doubtless,  some  heart-burning,  but  the  transition 
was  accomplished  without  an  outbreak,  and 


THE  SOUTHERNER'S   PROBLEM      193 

well-nigh  without  one  act  of  harshness  or  even 
of  rudeness. 

If  there  was  jubilation  among  the  Negroes 
on  the  plantation  it  was  not  known  to  the 
Whites.  In  fact  the  Negroes  were  rather  mysti 
fied.  The  sudden  coming  of  that  for  which 
they  had  possibly  hoped,  with  the  loom  of  the 
unknown  future,  had  sobered  at  least  the  elders. 
Their  owners,  almost  without  exception,  con 
veyed  to  them  the  information  of  their  free 
dom,  which  thus  had  a  more  comprehensible 
security  than  could  have  been  given  by  the 
acts  of  Congress,  or  the  orders  of  military  au 
thorities. 

In  some  cases  the  old  Negroes  sought  and 
held  long  conferences  with  their  mistresses  or 
masters  in  which  the  whole  matter  was  can 
vassed. 

In  every  instance  the  assurance  was  given 
them  that  they  should  live  on  the  old  planta 
tions,  if  they  wished  to  do  so  and  were  still 
willing  to  work  and  would  obey  orders. 

As  was  natural,  the  Negroes,  in  the  first  flush 
of  freedom,  left  the  estates  and  went  off  "  for 
themselves,"  as  the  phrase  ran.*  They  flocked 

*  Prince  Kropotkin  mentioned  in  his  memoirs  that  the 
Russian  serfs  who  wanted  to  show  their  emancipation  did 
the  same  thing. 


194  THE  NEGRO: 

either  to  the  cities,  or  to  the  nearest  centre  where 
a  garrison  of  Union  troops  was  posted,  and 
where  rations  were  distributed  partly  as  a  meas 
ure  of  necessity  and  partly  from  a  philanthropic 
sentiment  which  had  more  or  less  ground  for 
its  existence.  But  after  a  time,  many  of  them 
returned  to  work.  Those  of  them  who  had  any 
thing  shared  what  they  had  with  their  masters. 
Some  of  them  brought  eggs  and  chickens;  others 
saved  a  part  of  the  rations  given  by  the  Govern 
ment. 

It  is  no  part  of  my  intention  in  this  paper  to 
go  generally  into  the  relation  of  the  two  races 
since  the  emancipation  of  the  Negroes.  Certain 
phases  of  this  relation  have  been  dealt  with  by 
me  elsewhere.  While  it  is  easy  to  see  what 
mistakes  have  been  made  in  dealing  with  the 
subject,  no  one  can  tell  with  any  assurance 
how  a  different  system  might  have  worked 
out.  All  we  can  say,  with  absolute  certainty, 
is  that  hardly  any  other  system  could  have 
been  more  disastrous  than  the  one  which  was 
adopted. 

One  fact,  I  think,  cannot  be  soundly  contro 
verted — that  the  estrangement  of  the  Negro 
from  the  white  race  in  the  South  is  the  greatest 
misfortune  that  has  befallen  the  former  in  his 


THE   SOUTHERNER'S   PROBLEM      195 

history,  not  excepting  his  ravishment  from  his 
native  land. 

VI 

THE  old-time  Negro  has  almost  quite  passed 
from  the  earth,  as  have  his  old  master  and  his 
old  mistress.  A  few  still  remain,  like  the  last 
leaves  on  the  tree,  but  in  no  long  time  they,  too, 
will  have  disappeared.  But  so  long  as  he  sur 
vives,  the  old  family  feeling  of  affection  will  re 
main  in  the  hearts  of  those  who  knew  him.  Ev 
ery  week  or  two  the  newspapers  contain  the 
mention  of  the  passing  from  the  stage  of  one 
or  more  of  those  whose  place  in  some  old  fam 
ily  made  them  notable  in  their  lives  and 
caused  them  to  be  followed  to  the  grave  by  as 
sincere  mourners  among  the  whites  as  among 
the  blacks.  But  how  many  of  them  pass  with 
out  any  other  notice  than  the  unfeigned  mourn 
ing  of  those  whom  they  loved  and  served  so 
faithfully! 

No  Southerner,  whatever  his  feelings  of  an 
tagonism  may  be  to  the  Negro  race,  ever  meets 
an  old  Negro  man  or  woman  without  that  feel 
ing  rising  in  his  breast  which  one  experiences 
when  he  meets  some  old  friend  of  his  youth  on 
whom  Time  has  laid  his  chastening  hand. 


196  THE  NEGRO: 

Nor  has  the  old  feeling  by  any  means  died 
out  in  the  breast  of  the  old  Negro  himself. 
Only  as  the  whites  look  on  the  young  blacks 
with  some  disapproval,  so  the  old  Negro  re 
gards  the  younger  generation  of  whites  as 
inferior  to  the  generation  he  knew. 

Not  long  since  a  friend  in  Richmond  told 
me  the  following  story:  A  friend  of  his  in 
that  city  invited  him  in  the  shooting  season 
to  go  down  to  his  father's  place  to  shoot  par 
tridges.  The  house  had  been  burned  down, 
but  old  Robin  was  still  living  there,  and  had 
told  him  not  long  before  that  there  were  a 
good  many  birds  on  the  place.  Accordingly, 
the  two  gentlemen  one  morning  took  their  guns 
and  dogs  and  drove  down  to  the  old  Ball  plan 
tation,  where  they  arrived  about  sunrise.  Old 
Robin  was  cutting  wood  in  front  of  his  cabin, 
and  my  friend  began  to  shout  for  him:  "  Oh, 
Robin!  Oh,  Robin !"  The  old  fellow 
stopped,  and  coming  to  the  brow  of  the  hill 
above  them,  called:  "Who  dat  know  me  so 
much  bettuh  den  I  know  him?  " 

"  Come  down  here !  "  called  his  master. 

When  the  old  fellow  discovered  who  it  was 
he  was  delighted. 

"  Yes,  suh,"  said  he;  "  dyah's  plenty  of  buds 


THE   SOUTHERNER'S   PROBLEM      197 

down  here  on  de  branch.  I  sees  'em  eve'y 
evenin'  most  when  I  comes  down  atter  my  cow. 
You  go  'long  and  kill  'em  and  I'll  take  keer 
of  yo'  horse  for  yo'  and  tell  Mandy  to  hev  some 
snack  for  yo'  'bout  twelve  o'clock." 

Just  as  he  was  leaving,  he  stopped,  and  lean 
ing  out  of  the  wagon,  said:  "  Marse  Gus,  don't 
yo'  shoot  any  ole  hyahs  down  dere.  I  takes  my 
gun  down  wid  me  when  I  goes  down  atter  my 
cow.  Dem  buds  flies  too  fas'  for  me,  but  I 
kin  manage  to  shoot  a  ole  hyah  if  I  ketch  one 
settin'  in  de  baid." 

The  promise  was  given  and  was  kept  by  the 
hunters  until  they  were  about  to  stop  for  lunch. 
Just  then  a  fine  hare  jumped  up  in  front  of 
Marse  Gus,  and  gave  him  a  fair  shot.  In  his 
ardor  he  fired  at  it  and  knocked  it  over.  At 
that  moment  old  Robin  was  heard  calling  to 
them  to  come  on  up  to  the  house  as  "  snack  was 
ready." 

'  There !  "  said  Gus,  as  he  picked  up  the 
hare,  "  now  I've  gone  and  killed  this  hare,  and 
that  old  man  will  never  forgive  me." 

*  Take  it  and  give  it  to  him  for  his  wife," 
said  his  friend. 

uOh,  no!  "  he  said,  "  you  don't  know  old 
Robin;  he  will  never  forgive  me." 


198  THE  NEGRO: 

'*  Well,  put  it  down  in  the  bottom  of  your 
game-bag;  he  will  never  know  the  difference," 
said  his  friend.  And  this  was  shamelessly  done. 

They  were  greeted  by  the  old  man  cheer 
fully,  with  "  You  must  have  got  plenty  of  buds, 
I  heard  you  shoot  so  much?  " 

"  Oh,  yes,  we  had  very  good  luck!  "  said  the 
huntsmen. 

"  You  didn't  shoot  any  ole  hyahs?  "  he  in 
quired  confidently. 

The  silence  aroused  his  suspicion,  and,  turn 
ing,  he  shot  a  keen  glance  at  his  master,  which 
took  in  the  well-filled  game-bag. 

"  What  you  got  in  dem  game-pockets  to 
make  'em  look  so  big?  You  certain'y  ain'  shoot 
as  many  buds  as  dat  in  dis  time?  " 

Gus,  convicted,  poked  his  hand  into  his  bag 
and  drew  out  the  rabbit. 

"  Here,  Uncle  Robin,"  he  said  in  some  con 
fusion,  "  this  is  the  only  one  I  shot.  I  want 
you  to  take  it  and  give  it  to  Mandy." 

But  the  old  man  declined.  "  Nor,  I  don' 
want  it  and  Mandy  don'  want  it,"  he  said,  half- 
scornfully;  u  you  done  shoot  it  and  now  yo'  bet 
ter  keep  it." 

He  stalked  on  up  the  hill  in  silence.  Sud 
denly,  stopping,  he  turned  back. 


THE   SOUTHERNER'S   PROBLEM      199 

"  Well,  well,"  he  said,  "  times  certain'y  is 
changed!  Marse  Gus,  yo'  pa  wouldn't  'a'  told 
me  a  lie  for  a  mule,  let  'lone  a'  ole  hyah." 

The  character  of  the  old-time  Negro  can 
hardly  be  better  illustrated  than  by  the  case  of 
an  old  friend  of  mine,  John  Dabney,  to  whom  I, 
in  common  with  nearly  all  my  acquaintances  in 
Richmond,  used  to  be  greatly  indebted,  for  he 
was  the  best  caterer  I  ever  knew.  John  Dab 
ney  was,  in  his  boyhood,  a  race-rider  for  a 
noted  Virginia  turfman,  Major  William  R. 
Johnson,  but,  possibly  because  of  his  gifts  as  a 
cook,  he  soon  grew  too  fat  for  that  "  lean  and 
hungry  "  calling,  and  in  time  he  became  a  cele 
brated  cook  and  caterer.  He  belonged  to 
a  lady  in  the  adjoining  county  to  my  native 
county,  and,  prior  to  the  war,  he  bought  him 
self  from  his  mistress,  as  was  not  infrequently 
done  by  clever  Negroes.  When  the  war  closed, 
he  still  owed  his  mistress  several  hundred  dol 
lars  on  account  of  this  debt,  and  as  soon  as 
he  was  able  to  raise  the  sum  he  sent  it  to 
her.  She  promptly  returned  it,  telling  him 
that  he  was  free  and  would  have  been  free  any 
how  and  that  he  owed  her  nothing.  On  this, 
John  Dabney  took  the  money,  went  to  his  old 


200  THE  NEGRO: 

home  and  insisted  on  her  receiving  it,  saying 
that  his  old  master  had  brought  him  up  to  pay 
his  debts,  and  that  this  was  a  just  debt  which 
he  proposed  to  pay.  And  pay  it  he  did. 

The  instances  are  not  rare  in  which  old  fam 
ily  servants  who  have  worked  under  the  new 
conditions  more  successfully  than  their  former 
owners,  have  shown  the  old  feeling  by  render 
ing  them  such  acts  of  kindness  as  could  only 
have  sprung  from  a  deep  and  abiding  affection. 

Whoever  goes  to  the  White  House  will  find 
at  the  door  of  the  executive  offices  an  elderly 
and  very  stout  Negro  door-keeper,  with  perfect 
manners,  a  step  as  soft  as  the  fall  of  the  leaf, 
and  an  aplomb  which  nothing  can  disturb.  His 
name  is  Arthur  Simmons,  and,  until  toward  the 
close  of  the  war,  he  was  a  gentleman's  servant 
in  North  Carolina;  then  he  came  North.  He 
is,  possibly,  the  oldest  employee  in  the  White 
House,  having  been  appointed  by  General 
Grant  during  his  first  term,  and  having  held 
his  position,  with  the  exception  of  a  single  term 
— that  of  General  Harrison — to  the  present 
time.  It  is  said  that  Mr.  Cleveland's  first  ap 
pointment  after  his  return  to  office  was  that  of 
Arthur  Simmons  to  his  old  post.  Possibly,  Mr. 
Cleveland  had  heard  this  story  of  him :'  Once, 


THE  SOUTHERNER'S   PROBLEM      201 

Arthur,  having  learned  that  his  old  mistress 
had  expressed  a  desire  to  see  the  President  of 
the  United  States,  invited  her  to  Washington, 
met  her  at  the  station,  saw  to  her  comfort  while 
in  the  city,  arranged  an  interview  with  the  Presi 
dent  for  her,  and  then  escorted  her  back  to  take 
her  train  home. 

On  a  part  of  the  old  plantation  which  I  have 
attempted  to  describe  has  lived  for  the  past 
thirty  years,  free  of  rent,  the  leading  Negro 
politician  in  the  upper  end  of  Hanover  County. 
His  wife,  Hannah,  was  my  mother's  old  maid, 
who,  after  the  war,  as  before  it,  served  us  with 
a  fidelity  and  zeal  of  which  I  can  give  no  con 
ception.  It  may,  however,  illustrate  it  to  state 
that,  although  she  lived  a  mile  and  a  quarter 
from  the  house  and  had  to  cross  a  creek, 
through  which,  in  times  of  high  water,  she  oc 
casionally  had  to  wade  almost  to  her  waist,  she 
for  thirty  years  did  not  miss  being  at  her  post 
in  the  morning  more  than  a  half-score  times. 

Hannah  has  gone  to  her  long  home,  and  it 
may  throw  some  light  on  the  old  relation  be 
tween  mistress  and  servant  to  say  that  on  the 
occasion  of  the  golden  wedding  of  her  old  mas 
ter  and  mistress,  as  Hannah  was  at  that  time  too 
ill  to  leave  her  home,  they  took  all  the  presents 


202  THE  NEGRO: 

in  the  carriage  and  carried  them  over  to  show 
them  to  her.  Indeed,  Hannah's  last  thought 
was  of  her  old  mistress.  She  died  suddenly 
one  morning,  and  just  before  her  death  she 
said  to  her  husband,  "  Open  the  do',  it's  Miss 

."  The  door  was  opened,  but  the  mistress 

was  not  there,  except  to  Hannah's  dying  gaze. 
To  her,  she  was  standing  by  her  bedside,  and 
her  last  words  were  addressed  to  her. 

It  is  a  continual  cause  of  surprise  among 
those  who  do  not  know  the  South  intimately 
that  Southerners  should  be  so  fond  of  the  old 
Negroes  and  yet  should  be  so  intolerant  of 
things  which  Northerners  would  regard  with 
indifference.  It  is  a  matter  which  can  hardly 
be  explained,  but  if  anyone  goes  and  lives  at 
the  South,  he  will  quickly  find  himself  falling 
into  Southern  ways.  Let  one  go  on  the  planta 
tions  where  the  politician  is  absent  and  the 
"  bloody-shirt  "  newspaper  is  unknown,  and  he 
will  find  something  of  the  old  relation  still  ex 
isting. 

I  have  seen  a  young  man  (who  happened  to 
be  a  lieutenant  in  a  volunteer  company)  kiss 
his  old  mammy  on  the  parade  ground  in  sight 
of  the  whole  regiment. 

Some  years  ago,  while  General  Fitzhugh  Lee 


THE   SOUTHERNER'S    PROBLEM      203 

was  Governor  of  Virginia,  a  wedding  took  place 
in  the  executive  mansion  at  Richmond.  At  the 
last  moment,  when  the  company  were  assem 
bled  and  all  had  taken  their  places,  waiting  for 
the  bride  to  appear,  it  was  discovered  that 
mammy  Celia,  the  bride's  mammy,  had  not 
come  in,  and  no  less  a  person  than  General  Lee, 
the  Governor  of  Virginia,  went  and  fetched  her 
in  on  his  arm  to  take  her  olace  beside  the  mother 
of  the  bride. 


VII 


UNHAPPILY,  whatever  the  future  may  pro 
duce,  the  teachings  of  doctrinaires  and  injudi 
cious  friends  have  lost  the  Negroes  of  the  pres 
ent  generation  their  manners  and  cost  them 
much  of  the  friendship  of  the  Whites. 

None  of  us  knows  what  relation  the  future 
may  produce  between  the  two  races  in  the 
South,  but  possibly  when  the  self-righteous  shall 
be  fewer  than  they  are  now  and  the  teachings 
which  have  estranged  the  races  shall  become 
more  sane,  the  great  Anglo-Saxon  race,  which 
is  dominant,  and  the  Negro  race,  which  is  ami 
able,  if  not  subservient,  will  adjust  their  differ 
ences  more  in  accordance  with  the  laws  which 


204  THE  NEGRO: 

must  eventually  prevail,  and  the  old  feeling  of 
kindliness,  which  seems,  under  the  stress  of  an 
tagonism,  to  be  dying  away,  will  once  more 
reassert  itself. 


CHAPTER    VII 

THE    RACE   QUESTION* 

I 

TO   any   calm   observer   of   the   present 
condition   of   our   country   painfully 
apparent  must  be  the  difference  be 
tween  the  state  of  what  from  long  usage  we  are 
accustomed  to  term  "  the  two  sections." 

We  have  one  blood,  one  language,  one  relig 
ion,  one  common  end,  one  government ;  but  the 
North  and  the  South  are  still  "  the  two  sec 
tions,"  as  they  were  one  hundred  years  ago, 
when  the  bands  of  the  Constitution  were  hardly 
cooled  from  the  welding,  or  as  they  were  in 
1860,  when  they  stood,  armed  to  the  teeth,  fac 
ing  each  other,  and  the  cloud  of  revolution  was 

*This  paper  was  written  some  years  ago  and  was 
published  in  a  volume  of  essays  by  the  author,  entitled 
"  The  Old  South."  It  is  reprinted  here  substantially  as  it 
was  then  published,  partly  with  a  view  to  having  the  en 
tire  discussion  of  the  subject  by  the  author  in  one  volume, 
and  partly  to  show  the  result  of  studies  of  the  Race  Ques 
tion  at  that  time  and  since  that  time.  A  comparison  may 
readily  be  made  by  anyone  who  may  be  sufficiently  inter 
ested  in  the  matter  to  make  it. 


205 


206  THE  NEGRO: 

hovering  above  them  soon  to  burst  in  the  dread 
thunder  of  civil  war. 

Should  one,  hearing  the  phrase  "  the  two  sec 
tions,"  take  the  map  of  the  American  Union  and 
study  its  salient  features,  he  would  declare  that 
"  the  two  sections  "  were  by  natural  geographi 
cal  division  the  East  and  the  West;  should  he 
study  the  commerce  of  the  country  with  its  vast 
currents  and  tides,  its  fields  of  agriculture  and 
manufacture,  he  would  be  impelled  to  declare 
that  by  all  the  inexorable  laws  of  interest  they 
were  the  East  and  the  West.  And  yet,  we  who 
stand  amid  the  incontestable  evidences  of  events 
know  that  against  all  laws,  against  all  reason, 
against  all  right,  there  are  two  sections  of  this 
country,  and  they  are  not  the  East  and  the  West, 
but  the  South  and  the  rest  of  the  Union. 

It  is  proposed  to  show  briefly  why  this  un 
happy  condition  exists ;  and  to  suggest  a  few 
things  which,  if  earnestly  considered  and  pa 
tiently  advocated,  may,  in  the  providence  of 
God,  contribute  to  the  solution  of  the  distressing 
difficulties  which  confront  us. 

The  divergence  of  the  "  two  sections  "  was 
coeval  with  the  planting  of  the  continent;  it 
preceded  the  establishment  of  the  nation.  It 
steadily  increased  until  an  irrepressible  conflict 


THE  SOUTHERNER'S   PROBLEM      207 

became  inevitable;  and  it  was  not  until  after 
this  conflict  had  spent  itself  that  reconcilement 
became  possible. 

The  causes  of  that  divergence,  with  the  ex 
ception  of  one,  it  is  not  necessary  to  discuss 
here.  This  one  has  survived  even  the  cauteriza 
tion  of  war.  Other  causes  have  passed  away. 
The  right  of  secession  is  no  longer  an  active 
issue.  It  has  been  adjudicated.  That  it  once 
existed  and  was  utilized  on  occasion  by  other 
States  than  those  which  actually  exercised  it  is 
undeniable;  that  it  passed  away  with  the  Con 
federate  armies  at  Appomattox  is  equally  be 
yond  controversy.  The  very  men  who  once 
asserted  it  and  shed  their  blood  to  establish  it, 
would  now,  while  still  standing  by  the  Tightness 
of  their  former  position,  admit  that  in  the  light 
of  altered  conditions  the  Union  is  no  longer  dis 
soluble.  They  are  ready  if  need  be  to  maintain 
the  fact.  It  is,  however,  important  to  make  it 
clear  that  the  right  did  exist,  because  on  this 
depends  largely  the  South's  place  in  history. 
Without  this  we  were  mere  insurgents  and  reb 
els  ;  with  it,  we  were  a  great  people  in  revolution 
for  our  rights.  In  1861  the  South  stood  aligned 
against  the  Union  and  apparently  for  the  per 
petuation  of  slavery.  The  sentiment  of  the 


208  THE  NEGRO: 

whole  world  was  against  it.  We  were  defeated, 
overwhelmed.  Unless  we  possess  strength  suffi 
cient  to  maintain  ourselves  even  in  the  face  of 
this,  the  verdict  of  posterity  will  be  against  us. 
It  is  not  unlikely  that  in  fifty  years  the  defence 
of  slavery  will  be  deemed  the  world  over  to 
have  been  as  barbarous  as  we  now  deem  the 
slave-trade  to  have  been.  There  is  but  one  way 
to  prevent  the  impending  disaster:  by  estab 
lishing  the  real  fact,  that,  whatever  may  have 
been  the  immediate  and  apparent  occasion,  the 
true  and  ultimate  cause  of  the  action  of  the 
South  was  her  firm  and  unwavering  adherence 
to  the  principle  of  self-government  and  her 
jealous  devotion  to  her  inalienable  rights. 

But  if  the  other  causes  which  kept  the  coun 
try  divided  have  passed  away  as  practical  issues, 
one  still  survives  and  is,  under  a  changed  form, 
as  vital  to-day  and  as  pregnant  with  evil  as  it 
was  in  1861. 

This  is  the  question  which  ever  confronts  the 
South;  the  question  which  after  twenty-five 
years  of  peace  and  prosperity  still  keeps  the 
South  "  one  section  "  and  the  rest  of  the  nation 
the  other.  This  is  the  ever-present,  ever-men 
acing,  ever-growing  Negro  Question. 

It  is  to-day  the  most  portentous  as  it  is  the 


THE  SOUTHERNER'S   PROBLEM      209 

most  dangerous  problem  which  confronts  the 
American  people. 

The  question  is  so  misunderstood  that  even 
the  terminology  for  it  in  the  two  sections  varies 
irreconcilably.  The  North  terms  it  simply  the 
question  of  the  civil  equality  of  all  citizens  be 
fore  the  law ;  the  South  denominates  it  the  ques 
tion  of  Negro  domination.  More  accurately  it 
should  be  termed  the  Race  Question. 

Whatever  its  proper  title  may  be,  upon  its 
correct  solution  depend  the  progress  and  the  se 
curity,  if  not  the  very  existence,  of  the  American 
people. 

In  order  that  it  may  be  solved  it  is  necessary, 
first,  that  its  real  gravity  shall  be  understood, 
and  its  true  difficulties  apprehended. 

We  have  lived  in  quietude  so  long,  and  have 
become  so  accustomed  to  the  condition  of  af 
fairs,  that  we  are  sensible  of  no  apprehension, 
but  rest  in  the  face  of  this  as  of  other  dangers, 
content  and  calm.  So  rest  Alpine  dwellers  who 
sleep  beneath  masses  of  snow  which  have  ac 
cumulated  for  years,  yet  which,  quiet  as  they 
appear  upon  the  mountain-sides  above,  may  at 
any  time  without  warning,  by  the  mere  breaking 
of  a  twig  or  the  fall  of  a  pebble,  be  transformed 
into  the  resistless  and  overwhelming  avalanche. 


210  THE  NEGRO: 

There  are  signs  of  impending  peril  about  us. 

There  is,  first,  the  danger  incident  to  the 
exigence  under  which  the  South  has  stood,  of 
wresting  if  not  of  subverting  the  written  law 
to  what  she  deems  the  inexorable  exactions  of 
her  condition. 

It  is  often  charged  that  the  written  law  is 
not  fully  and  freely  observed  at  the  South  in 
matters  relating  to  the  exercise  of  the  elective 
franchise.  The  defence  is  not  so  much  a  de 
nial  of  the  charge  as  it  is  a  confession  and  avoid 
ance.  To  the  accusation  it  is  replied  that  the 
written  law,  when  subverted  at  all,  is  so  sub 
verted  only  in  obedience  to  a  higher  law 
founded  on  the  instinct  of  self-protection  and 
self-preservation. 

If  it  be  admitted  that  this  is  true,  is  it  noth 
ing  to  us  that  a  condition  exists  which  necessi 
tates  the  subversion  of  any  law?  Is  it  not  an 
injury  to  our  people  that  the  occasion  exists 
which  places  them  in  conflict  with  the  law,  and 
compels  them  to  assert  the  existence  of  a  higher 
duty?  Can  law  be  overridden  without  creating 
a  spirit  which  will  override  law?  a  spirit  ready 
to  constitute  itself  the  judge  of  what  shall  and 
what  shall  not  be  considered  law ;  a  spirit  which 
eventually  substitutes  its  will  for  law  and  con- 


THE  SOUTHERNER'S   PROBLEM      211 

founds  its  interest  with  right?  Is  it  a  small 
matter  that  our  people  or  any  part  of  them 
should  be  compelled,  by  any  exigency  whatever, 
to  go  armed  at  any  time  in  any  place  in  defiance 
of  law? 

This  is  a  grave  matter  and  is  to  be  consid 
ered  with  due  deliberation ;  for  on  its  right  solu 
tion  much  depends.  The  first  step  toward  cure 
is  ever  comprehension  of  the  disease.  The  first 
step  toward  the  proper  solution  of  our  trouble 
is  to  secure  a  perfect  comprehension  of  it.  To 
do  this  we  must  first  comprehend  it  ourselves, 
then  only  can  we  hope  to  enlighten  others. 

Obedience  to  law,  willing  and  invariable  sub 
mission  to  law,  is  one  of  the  highest  qualities 
of  a  nation,  and  one  of  the  chief  promoters  of 
national  elevation.  Antagonism  to  law,  a  spirit 
which  rejects  the  restraints  of  law,  depraves  the 
individual  conscience  and  retards  national  prog 
ress. 

Can  any  fraud,  evasion,  or  contrivance  what 
ever  be  practised  or  connived  at,  without  by  so 
much  impairing  the  moral  sense  and  character 
of  a  people  as  well  as  of  an  individual?  Can 
any  deflection  whatsoever,  no  matter  how  inex 
orable  the  occasion,  from  the  path  of  absolute 
rectitude  be  tolerated  without  inflicting  an  in- 


212  THE  NEGRO: 

jury  on  that  sense  of  justice  and  right,  which, 
allied  to  unflinching  courage,  constitutes  a  na 
tion's  virtue  ?  Who  will  say  that  the  moral  sense 
of  our  people  now  is  as  lofty  as  it  was  in  the 
days  of  our  fathers,  when  men  voted  with  up 
lifted  faces  for  the  candidate  of  their  choice? 

The  press  of  a  portion  of  the  land  is  filled 
with  charges  of  injuries  to  the  Negro.  The 
real  injury  is  not  to  him,  but  to  the  White.  From 
opposition  to  law  to  actual  lawlessness  is  but  a 
step.  This  then  is  the  first  danger. 

The  physical  peril  from  the  overcrowding 
among  our  people  of  an  ignorant  and  hostile 
race  is  not  more  real  than  this  which  threatens 
our  moral  rectitude;  but  it  is  more  apparent. 

Senator  Hoar,  of  Massachusetts,  speaking  on 
the  floor  of  the  United  States  Senate  on  the  23d 
of  February,  1889,  in  speaking  of  the  South, 
said: 

"  I  make  these  remarks  with  full  knowledge 
of  the  difficult  problem  that  awaits  us,  and  the 
problem  that  especially  concerns  our  friends 
south  of  Mason  and  Dixon's  line ;  but  I  remem 
ber  when  I  make  them  that  the  person  hears 
the  sound  of  my  voice  this  moment  who,  in  his 
lifetime,  will  see  fifty  million  Negroes  dwell 
ing  in  those  States." 


THE  SOUTHERNER'S   PROBLEM      213 

Can  language  paint  in  stronger  colors  the 
peril  which  confronts  us?  The  senator  went 
on  to  depict  the  evils  which  might  ensue.  "  If 
you  go  on,"  he  said,  "  with  these  methods  which 
are  reported  to  us  on  what  we  deem  pretty 
good  evidence,  you  are  sowing  in  the  breast  of 
that  race  a  seed  from  which  is  to  come  a  harvest 
of  horror  and  blood,  to  which  the  French  Revo 
lution  or  San  Domingo  is  light  in  comparison." 

Senator  Hoar,  like  most  others  of  his  lati 
tude,  thinks  that  he  knows  the  Negro,  and 
understands  the  pending  question.  He  does 
not.  Had  he  understood  the  true  gravity  of 
that  problem,  his  cheek,  as  he  caught  the  echo 
of  his  own  words,  would  have  blanched  at  the 
thought  of  the  peril  he  is  transmitting  to  his 
children  and  grandchildren;  not  the  peril,  per 
haps,  of  fire  and  massacre,  but  a  peril  as  deadly, 
the  peril  of  contamination  from  the  overcrowd 
ing  of  an  inferior  race.  All  other  evils  are 
but  corollaries;  the  evil  of  race-conflict,  though 
not  so  awful  as  the  French  Revolution  or  San 
Domingo;  the  evil  of  growing  armies  with 
their  menace  to  liberty;  the  evil  of  race-degen 
eration  from  enforced  and  constant  association 
with  an  inferior  race:  these  are  some  of  the 
perils  which  spring  from  that  state  of  affairs 


214  THE  NEGRO: 

and  confront  us.  At  one  more  step  they  con 
front  the  rest  of  the  Anglo-American  people  to 
day.  For  the  only  thing  that  stands  to-day 
between  the  people  of  the  North  and  the  Negro 
is  the  people  of  the  South.  The  time  may  come 
when  the  only  thing  that  will  stand  between  the 
Negro  and  the  people  of  the  North  will  be  the 
people  of  the  South. 


II 


THE  chief  difficulty  in  the  solution  of  the 
question  exists  in  the  different  views  held  as  to 
it  by  the  two  sections.  They  do  not  understand 
it  alike.  They  stand  as  widely  divided  as  to 
it  to-day  as  they  stood  forty  years  ago.  Their 
ultimate  interests  are  identical;  their  present 
interests  are  not  very  widely  divergent.  Their 
opposite  attitudes  as  to  it  must,  therefore,  be 
due  to  error  somewhere.  One  or  the  other  sec 
tion  must  be  in  error  as  to  it;  possibly  neither 
may  be  exactly  right. 

This  much  we  know  and  can  assert:  there 
must  be  an  absolutely  right  position.  It  is  im 
peratively  necessary  that  we  find  it;  for  on  our 
discovery  of  it  and  our  planting  ourselves  firmly 
on  it  depends  our  security.  If  we  have  not 


THE  SOUTHERNER'S   PROBLEM      215 

found  it  the  sooner  we  realize  that  fact  the  bet 
ter  for  us  and  for  those  that  shall  come  after 
us;  if  we  have  found  it  the  sooner  we  make  it 
understood  the  better. 

One  thing  is  certain,  there  is  no  security  in 
silence;  no  safety  in  inaction.  If  fifty  million 
Negroes,  or  even  a  much  smaller  number,  are 
to  come  with  San  Domingo  and  the  French 
Revolution  in  their  train,  the  white  race  has 
need  to  awake  and  bestir  itself. 

The  recent  census  has  happily  showed  that 
Senator  Hoar  and  others  like  him  have  over 
estimated  the  ratio  of  increase.*  But  the  prob 
lem  is  grave  enough  as  it  is. 

The  first  step  to  be  taken  is  to  turn  the  light 
on  the  subject.  Let  it  be  examined,  measured, 
comprehended,  and  then  dealt  with  as  shall  be 
found  to  be  just  and  right.  The  old  method  of 
crimination  and  defiance  will  no  longer  avail; 
we  must  deal  with  the  question  calmly,  ration 
ally,  philosophically.  We  must  abandon  all 
untenable  positions  whatsoever,  place  ourselves 
on  the  impregnable  ground  of  right,  and  then 

*  The  percentage  of  increase  of  the  Negro  race  is  shown 
to  be  considerably  less  than  that  of  the  white  ;  the  percent 
age  of  deaths  among  the  former  race  being  largely  in  excess 
of  that  of  the  latter.  See  "  Vital  Statistics  of  the  Negro," 
by  Frederick  L.  Hoffman,  The  Arena,  April,  1891,  p.  529. 


216  THE  NEGRO: 

whatever  may  befall  meantime,  we  can  calmly 
await  the  inevitable  justification  of  events. 

In  the  first  place,  let  us  disembarrass  our 
selves  by  discarding  all  irrelevant  and  extrane 
ous  questions.  Putting  aside  all  mere  prejudice 
whatever,  whether  springing  from  the  Negro's 
former  condition  of  servitude  or  from  other 
causes,  let  us  base  our  argument  on  facts  and 
the  final  issue  cannot  be  doubtful. 

Whatever  prejudice  may  exist,  a  constant, 
firm,  and  philosophic  presentation  of  the  facts 
of  the  case  must  in  the  end  establish  the  truth, 
and  secure  the  right  remedy.  The  spirit  of  civ 
ilization  must  overcome  at  last,  and  whatever 
obstacles  it  shall  encounter,  right  must  event 
ually  triumph. 

The  North  deems  the  pending  question 
merely  one  of  the  enforcement  or  subversion  of 
an  elective  franchise  law;  it  has  never  accepted 
the  proposition  that  it  is  a  great  race  question 
on  which  hinges  the  preservation  of  the  Union, 
the  security  of  the  people,  white  and  black  alike, 
and  the  progress  of  American  civilization.  Per 
haps  no  clearer  or  more  authoritative  exposition 
of  the  views  held  by  the  North  on  this  question 
can  be  found  than  that  set  forth  in  a  recent  ad 
dress  by  Mr.  G.  W.  Cable  delivered  before  the 


THE   SOUTHERNER'S   PROBLEM      217 

Massachusetts  Club  of  Boston  on  the  220!  of 
February,  1890.  The  favor  with  which  it  was 
received  by  the  class  to  whom  it  was  delivered 
testifies  not  the  hostility  of  that  class,  but  the 
extent  to  which  the  question  is  misunderstood 
in  that  section. 

Mr.  Cable,  after  negativing  the  Southern 
idea  of  the  question,  declares:  "  The  problem 
is  whether  American  citizens  shall  not  enjoy 
equal  rights  in  the  choice  of  their  rulers.  It 
is  not  a  question  of  the  Negro's  right  to  rule. 
//  is  simply  a  question  of  their  right  to  choose 
rulers;  and  as  in  reconstruction  days  they  se 
lected  more  white  men  for  office  than  men  of 
their  own  race,  they  would  probably  do  so 
now."  This  is  quoted  with  approval  by  even 
so  liberal  and  well-informed  a  thinker  as  the 
Rev.  Henry  M.  Field,  who  certainly  bears  only 
good-will  to  the  South,  as  to  the  rest  of  man 
kind.  The  indorsement  of  these  views  by  such 
a  man  proves  that  the  North  absolutely  mis 
apprehends  the  true  question  which  confronts 
the  nation  at  this  time.  It  has  from  constant 
iteration  accepted  as  facts  certain  statements 
such  as  those  quoted,  and  these  constitute  its 
premises,  on  which  it  bases  all  its  reasoning  and 
all  its  action. 


218  THE  NEGRO: 

The  trouble  is  that  its  first  premise  is  falla 
cious.  Its  teachers,  its  preachers,  its  writers,  its 
orators,  its  philosophers,  its  politicians,  have 
with  one  voice,  and  that  a  mighty  voice,  been 
for  a  hundred  years  instilling  into  its  mind  the 
uncontradicted  doctrine  that  the  South  brought 
the  Negro  here  and  bound  him  in  slavery;  that 
the  South  kept  the  Negro  in  slavery;  that  to 
perpetuate  this  enormity  the  South  plunged  the 
nation  in  war,  and  attempted  to  destroy  the 
Union;  that  the  South  still  desires  the  reestab- 
lishment  of  slavery,  and  that  meantime  it  op 
presses  the  Negro,  defies  the  North,  and  stands 
a  constant  menace  to  the  Union. 

The  great  body  of  the  Northern  people,  bred 
on  this  food,  never  having  heard  any  other  re 
lation,  believes  this  implicity,  and  all  the  more 
dangerously  because  honestly.  If  they  are 
wrong  and  we  right  it  behooves  us  to  enlighten 
them. 

There  are,  without  doubt,  some  whom  noth 
ing  can  enlighten ;  who  would  not  believe  though 
one  rose  from  the  dead.  They  are  not  confined 
to  one  latitude.  There  are,  with  equal  cer 
tainty,  others  who  for  place  and  profit  trade  in 
their  brother's  blood,  and  keep  open  the  wounds 
which  peace,  but  for  them,  would  long  ago  have 


THE  SOUTHERNER'S   PROBLEM      219 

healed;  who  for  a  mess  of  pottage  would  sell 
the  birthright  of  the  nation.  The  professional 
Haman  can  never  sleep  while  Mordecai  so 
much  as  sits  at  the  gate;  but  we  can  have  an 
abiding  faith  in  the  ultimate  good  sense  and 
sound  principles  of  the  great  Anglo-Saxon  race 
wherever  it  may  dwell;  and  to  this  we  must 
address  ourselves. 

The  second  thing  necessary  to  the  solution  of 
the  question  is  to  enlighten  the  people  of  the 
North.  If  we  can  show  that  the  question  is  not, 
as  Mr.  Cable  states  and  as  the  North  believes, 
merely  whether  the  Negro  shall  or  shall  not 
have  the  right  to  choose  his  ruler,  but  is  a  great 
race  question  on  which  depends  the  future  as 
well  as  the  present  salvation  of  the  nation,  we 
need  have  no  fear  as  to  the  ultimate  result ;  sound 
sense  and  right  judgment  will  prevail. 

That  there  exists  a  race  question  of  some 
sort  must  be  apparent  to  every  person  who 
passes  through  the  South.  Where  six  millions 
of  people  of  one  color  and  one  race  live  in  con 
tact  with  twelve  millions  of  another  color  and 
race,  there  must,  of  necessity,  be  a  race  issue. 
The  Negro  has  not  behaved  unnaturally:  he 
has,  indeed,  in  the  main  behaved  well;  but  the 
race  issue  exists  and  grows.  The  feeling  has  not 


220  THE  NEGRO: 

yet  reached  the  point  of  personal  hostility — 
at  least  on  the  part  of  the  Whites;  but  as  the 
older  generation  which  knew  the  tie  between 
master  and  servant  passes  away,  the  race  feel 
ing  is  growing  intenser.  The  Negro  becomes 
more  assertive,  the  White  more  firm. 

Ill 

THERE  are  a  multitude  of  men  and  women 
at  the  North  who  do  not  know  that  slavery  ever 
really  existed  at  the  North.  They  may  accept 
it  historically  in  a  dim,  theoretical  sort  of  way, 
as  we  accept  the  fact  that  men  and  women  were 
once  hanged  for  forgery  or  for  stealing  a  shil 
ling  ;  but  they  do  not  take  it  in  as  a  vital  fact. 

It  may  possibly  aid  the  solution  of  our  prob 
lem  if  it  be  shown  that  New  England  had  quite 
as  much  to  do  with  the  establishment  of  Afri 
can  slavery  on  this  continent  as  had  the  South, 
though  it  survived  longest  in  the  latter  section; 
that  slavery  at  the  North  was,  while  it  con 
tinued,  as  rigorous  a  system  as  ever  it  was  at 
the  South;  that  abolition  was  at  the  North  in 
the  main  deemed  as  illegal,  and  its  advocates 
encountered  as  much  obloquy  there  as  at  the 
South;  that  the  emancipation  of  the  slaves  was 
effected  not  by  the  Northern  people  at  large, 


SOUTHERNER'S    PROBLEM      221 

but  by  a  limited  band  of  enthusiasts  and  in  the 
wise  providence  of  God;  that  the  emancipation 
proclamation  was  not  based  on  the  lofty  moral 
principle  of  universal  freedom,  to  which  it  has 
been  the  custom  to  accredit  it,  but  was  a  war- 
measure,  resorted  to  only  on  "  necessity  of 
war/'  and  as  a  means  of  restoring  the  Union. 
Further,  that  the  investment  of  the  Negro  with 
the  elective  franchise  was  not  the  result  of  a 
high  moral  sentiment  founded  on  the  rights  of 
man,  but  was  effected  in  a  spirit  of  heat  if  not 
of  revenge,  and  under  a  misapprehension  of 
the  true  bearing  of  such  an  act;  that  the  Negro 
has  not  used  the  power  vested  in  him  for  the 
advantage  of  himself  or  of  anyone  else,  but  in 
a  reckless,  unreasonable,  and  dangerous  way; 
that  while  there  have  been  cases  of  injustice  to 
him,  in  the  main  the  restraints  thrown  around 
him  at  the  South  have  been  merely  such  as  were 
rendered  necessary  to  preserve  the  South  from 
absolute  and  irretrievable  ruin;  that  the  same 
instincts  under  which  the  South  has  acted  pre 
vail  at  the  North;  that  the  Negro  has  been  and 
is  being  educated  by  the  South  to  an  extent  far 
beyond  his  right  to  claim,  or  the  ability  of  the 
white  race  to  contribute  to  it;  that  he  is  as  yet 
incapable,  as  a  race,  of  self-government.  And 


222  THE  NEGRO: 

finally,  that  unless  the  white  race  continues  to 
assert  itself  and  retains  control,  a  large  section  of 
the  nation  will  become  hopelessly  Africanized, 
and  American  civilization  relapse  and  possibly 
perish. 

Slavery  was  until  within,  historically  speak 
ing,  a  very  recent  period,  as  much  a  Northern 
institution  as  it  was  a  Southern  one;  it  existed 
in  full  vigor  in  all  of  the  original  thirteen  col 
onies,  and  while  it  existed  it  was  quite  as  rig 
orous  a  system  at  the  North  as  at  the  South. 
Every  law  which  formed  its  code  at  the  South 
had  its  counterpart  in  the  North,  and  with  less 
reason;  for  while  there  were  at  the  South  not 
less  than  600,000  slaves — Virginia  having,  by 
the  census  of  1790,  293,427 — there  were  at 
the  North,  by  the  census  of  1790,  less  than 
42,000. 

Regulations  not  wholly  compatible  with  ab 
solute  freedom  of  will  are  necessary  concomi 
tants  of  any  system  of  slavery,  especially  where 
the  slaves  are  in  large  numbers;  and  it  should 
move  the  hearts  of  our  brethren  at  the  North 
to  greater  patience  with  us  that  they,  too,  are 
not  "  without  sin." 

Massachusetts  has  the  honor  of  being  the  first 
community  in  America  to  legalize  the  slave- 


THE   SOUTHERNER'S   PROBLEM      223 

trade  and  slavery  by  legislative  act;  the  first  to 
send  out  a  slave-ship,  and  the  first  to  secure  a 
fugitive-slave  law. 

Slavery  having  been  planted  on  this  continent 
(not  by  the  South,  as  has  been  reiterated  until 
it  is  the  generally  received  doctrine,  but  by  a 
Dutch  ship,  which  in  1619  landed  a  cargo  of 
"  twenty  negers  "  in  a  famished  condition  at 
Jamestown),  it  shortly  took  general  root,  and 
after  a  time  began  to  flourish.  Indeed,  it  flour 
ished  here  and  elsewhere,  so  that  in  1636,  only 
seventeen  years  later,  a  ship,  The  Desire,  was 
built  and  fitted  out  at  Marblehead  as  a  slaver, 
and  thus  became  the  first  American  slave-ship, 
but  by  no  means  the  last.  In  the  early  period 
of  the  institution  it  was  conceived  that  as  it  was 
justified  on  the  ground  that  the  slaves  were 
heathen,  conversion  to  Christianity  might  oper 
ate  to  emancipate  them.  In  Virginia,  the  lead-  " 
ing  Southern  colony,  it  was  adjudicated  that  this 
did  not  so  operate;  but  long  prior  to  that,  and 
while  it  was  the  accepted  theory,  Negroes  are 
shown,  by  the  church  records,  to  have  been  bap 
tized.  In  Massachusetts,  at  that  time,  baptism 
was  expressly  prohibited. 

The   fugitive-slave   law,   which  proved  ulti 
mately  and  naturally  so  powerful  an  excitant  in 


224  THE  NEGRO: 

the  history  of  slavery,  and  which  is  generally 
believed  to  have  been  the  product  of  only  South 
ern  cupidity  and  brutality,  had  its  prototype  in 
the  Articles  of  the  Confederation  of  the  United 
Colonies  of  New  England  (i9th  May,  1643), 
in  which  Massachusetts  was  the  ruling  colony. 
Many  of  the  good  people  of  Massachusetts, 
in  their  zeal  and  their  misapprehension  of  the 
facts,  have  been  accustomed  to  regard  their 
own  skirts  as  free  from  all  taint  whatsoever  of 
the  accursed  doctrine  of  property  in  human  be 
ings,  and  have  been  wont  to  boast  that  slavery 
never  existed  by  virtue  of  law  in  that  grand  old 
Commonwealth,  and  that  certainly  no  human 
creature  was  ever  born  a  slave  on  her  sacred 
soil.  For  refutation  one  need  go  no  further 
than  the  work  of  Mr.  George  H.  Moore,  en 
titled  "  History  of  Slavery  in  Massachusetts."  * 
Mr.  Moore  was  librarian  of  the  Historical  So- 

*  "The  commissioners  of  the  United  Colonies  found  oc 
casion  to  complain  to  the  Dutch  governor  in  New  Nether 
lands  in  1646  of  the  fact  that  the  Dutch  agent  in  Hartford 
had  harbored  a  fugitive  Indian  slave-woman,  of  whom  they 
say  in  their  letter  :  *  Such  a  servant  is  parte  of  her  mas 
ter's  estate,  and  a  more  considerable  parte  than  a  beaste.' 
A  provision  for  the  rendition  of  fugitives,  etc.,  was  after 
ward  made  by  treaty  between  the  Dutch  and  the  English  " 
(Moore's  "  History  of  Slavery  in  Massachusetts,"  p.  28, 
citing  Plymouth  Colony  Rec.  IX.  6,  64,  190). 


THE   SOUTHERNER'S   PROBLEM      225 

ciety  of  New  York,  and  corresponding  member 
of  the  Historical  Society  of  Massachusetts.  He 
says,  page  19,  citing  Commonwealth  vs.  Aves, 
1 8  Pick.,  Shaw,  C.  J. :  "  It  has  been  persistently 
asserted  and  repeated  by  all  sorts  of  authorities, 
historical  and  legal,  up  to  that  of  the  chief  jus 
tice  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  Common 
wealth,  that  *  slavery  to  a  certain  extent  seems 
to  have  crept  in;  not  probably  by  force  of  any 
law,  for  none  such  is  found  or  known  to  exist.'  ' 
"  In  Mr.  Sumner's  famous  speech  in  the  Senate, 
June  28,  1854,  he  boldly  asserted  that  '  in  all 
her  annals  no  person  was  ever  born  a  slave  on 
the  soil  of  Massachusetts  ';  and,  says  he,  '  if  in 
point  of  fact  the  issue  of  slaves  was  sometimes 
held  in  bondage,  it  was  never  by  sanction  of  any 
statute  law  of  colony  or  commonwealth.'  ' 

"  And,"  says  Mr.  Moore  further,  "  recent 
writers  of  history  in  Massachusetts  have  as 
sumed  a  similar  lofty  and  positive  tone  on  this 
subject.  Mr.  Palfrey  says:  'In  fact,  no  per 
son  was  ever  born  into  legal  slavery  in  Massa 
chusetts.'  *  Mr.  Justice  Gray,  in  an  elaborate 
historical  note  to  the  case  of  Oliver  vs.  Sale, 
Quincy's  R.  29,  says :  *  Previously  to  the  adop- 

*  "  History  of  New  England,'*  II.,  p.  30,  note  ;  Moore, 
p.  21. 


226  THE  NEGRO: 

tion  of  the  State  Constitution  in  1780,  Negro 
slavery  existed  to  some  extent  and  Negroes  held 
in  slavery  might  be  sold;  but  all  children  of 
slaves  were  by  law  free.'  ' 

Is  it  any  ground  for  wonder  that  with  these 
apparently  authoritative  statements  ever  iter 
ated  and  reiterated  before  them,  the  people  of 
Massachusetts  should  really  have  believed  that 
no  child  had  ever  been  born  into  slavery  on  the 
sacred  soil  of  Massachusetts,  and  that  slavery 
itself  only  existed  to  "  some  extent  "  ? 

Mr.  Moore,  with  authorities  in  hand,  shows 
that  these  declarations  are  unfounded,  and 
states  the  uncomfortable  but  real  facts.  He 
quotes  the  ninety-first  article  of  "  The  Body  of 
Liberties/'  which  appears  in  the  first  edition 
under  the  head  of  "  Liberties  of  Forreiners  & 
Strangers,"  and  in  the  second  edition,  that  of 
1660,  under  the  title  of  "  Bond-Slavery." 

"91.  There  shall  never  be  any  bond-slaverie, 
villinage  or  captivity  amongst  us  unles  it  be  law- 
full  captives  taken  in  just  warres,  and  such 
strangers  as  willingly  sell  themselves  or  are 
SOLD  TO  us.  And  these  shall  have  all  the  liber 
ties  and  Christian  usages  which  the  law  of  God 
established  in  Israel  concerning  such  persons 
doeth  morally  require,  This  exempts  none 


THE  SOUTHERNER'S   PROBLEM      227 

from  servitude  who  shall  be  judged  thereto  by 
authorise."  * 

After  showing  the  evolution  of  this  law,  Mr. 
Moore,  on  page  18,  says: 

"  Based  on  the  Mosaic  Code,  it  is  an  absolute 
recognition  of  slavery  as  a  legitimate  status, 
and  of  the  right  of  one  man  to  sell  himself,  as 
well  as  that  of  another  man  to  buy  him.  It 
sanctions  the  slave-trade  and  the  perpetual 
bondage  of  Indians  and  Negroes,  their  children 
and  their  children's  children,  and  entitles  Mas 
sachusetts  to  precedence  over  any  and  all  other 
colonies  in  similar  legislation.  It  anticipates  by 
many  years  anything  of  the  sort  to  be  found  in 
the  statutes  of  Virginia  or  Maryland  or  South 
Carolina,  and  nothing  like  it  is  to  be  found  in 
the  contemporary  codes  of  her  sister  colonies  in 
New  England."! 

Chief- Justice  Parsons,  in  the  leading  Massa 
chusetts  case  of  Winchendon  vs.  Hatfield  in  er 
ror,  referring  to  the  dictum  of  C.  J.  Dana  in  a 
previous  case,  that  a  Negro  born  in  that  colony 
prior  to  the  Constitution  of  1780  was  free, 
though  born  of  slave  parents,  admits  candidly: 
"  It  is  very  certain  that  the  general  practice 

*M.  H.  S.  Coll.  in,  VIII.  231. 
t  Compare  Hildreth,  I.  278. 


228  THE  NEGRO: 

and  common  usage  had  been  opposed  to  this 
opinion. " 

These  and  other  authorities  cited  by  Mr. 
Moore  would  seem  to  place  the  matter  abso 
lutely  beyond  all  question. 

IV 

Now  as  to  the  abolition  of  slavery. 

What  are  the  historical  facts  as  to  this?  It 
is  true  that  slavery  had  been  abolished  at  the 
North;  but  this  was  under  conditions  which, 
had  they  prevailed  at  the  South,  would  have 
been  taken  advantage  of  there  also;  and  when 
the  institution  was  abolished  in  the  Northern 
States,  it  had  become  so  unprofitable  that  no 
great  credit  can  attach  to  the  act  of  abolition.* 
It  is  also  true  that  there  were  throughout  the 
North  a  considerable  body  of  men  and  women 
who,  from  a  very  long  time  back,  believed  sin 
cerely  that  human  slavery  was  a  crime  against 
nature,  and  strove  zealously  and  persistently  to 
overthrow  it.  At  the  South  there  were  also 

*  "  The  breeding  of  slaves  was  not  regarded  with  favor. 
Dr.  Belknap  says  that  negro  children  were  considered  an 
encumbrance  in  a  family  ;  and  when  weaned  were  given 
away  like  puppies"  (Moore,  p.  57,  citing  M.  H.  S.  Coll.  I, 
IV.  200). 


THE   SOUTHERNER'S    PROBLEM      229 

many  who  labored  with  not  less  earnestness  to 
effect  the  same  end;  though,  owing  to  different 
conditions,  the  same  means  could  not  be  em 
ployed;  and,  standing  face  to  face  with  the  im 
mense  slave  population  which  existed  at  the 
South,  they  saw  the  same  danger  which  faces  us 
to-day,  and  sought  in  colonization  the  means  at 
once  to  abolish  slavery,  to  free  America,  and  to 
Christianize  Africa. 

As  to  actual,  immediate  emancipation,  how 
ever,  it  was  no  more  the  intentional  work  of  the 
North  as  a  people  than  it  was  of  the  South. 

The  credit  for  it,  even  so  far  as  creating  a 
public  opinion  which  rendered  it  eventually  pos 
sible,  is  due  to  a  band  of  emancipators,  who, 
for  a  long  time  absolutely  insignificant  in  num 
bers,  and  ever  comparatively  few  when  con 
trasted  with  the  great  body  of  the  people  of  the 
North,  devoted  their  energies,  their  labors, 
their  lives,  to  the  accomplishment  of  this  end. 
During  their  labors  they  encountered  no  less 
obloquy,  and  experienced  scarcely  less  peril  at 
the  North  than  at  the  South,  with  this  difference, 
that  at  the  North  the  outrages  perpetrated  upon 
them  were  inspired  by  a  mere  sentiment,  while 
at  the  South  the  vast  number  of  slaves  made 
any  interference  with  them  intolerable,  and  the 


\   . 


230  THE  NEGRO: 

treatment  abolitionists  received  was  based  on  a 
recognition  of  the  fact  that  the  doctrines  they 
promulgated  might  at  any  moment  plunge  the 
South  into  the  horrors  of  insurrection. 

It  was  not  at  the  South,  but  at  the  North, 
in  Connecticut,  that  Prudence  Crandall  was,  for 
teaching  colored  girls,  subjected  to  a  persecution 
as  barbarous  as  it  was  persistent.  After  being 
sued  and  pursued  by  every  process  of  law  which 
a  New  England  community  could  devise,  she 
was  finally  driven  forth  into  exile  in  Kansas. 

She  opened  her  school  in  Canterbury,  Con 
necticut,  in  April,  1833,  and  was  at  once  sub 
jected  to  the  bitterest  persecution  conceivable. 
It  was  all  well  enough  to  hold  theories  about 
the  equal  rights  of  all  mankind;  well  enough  to 
abuse  the  institution  of  slavery  in  Virginia,  in 
South  Carolina,  in  Georgia,  or  in  Louisiana; 
but  actually  to  start  "  a  nigger  school  "  in  Can 
terbury,  Connecticut,  was  monstrous.  The 
town-meeting  promptly  voted  to  "  petition  for 
a  law  against  the  bringing  of  colored  people 
from  other  towns  and  States  for  any  purpose, 
and  more  especially  for  the  purpose  of  dissem 
ination  of  the  principles  and  doctrines  opposed 
to  the  benevolent  colonization  scheme."  "  In 
May  an  act  prohibiting  private  schools  for  non- 


THE  SOUTHERNER'S   PROBLEM      231 

resident  colored  persons,  and  providing  for  the 
expulsion  of  the  latter,  was  procured  from  the 
legislature,  amid  the  greatest  rejoicings  in  Can 
terbury,  even  to  the  ringing  of  church-bells." 
The  most  vindictive  and  inhuman  measures 
were  adopted  against  the  offender;  the  shops 
and  meeting-houses  were  closed  against  her 
and  her  pupils.* 

It  was  not  at  the  South,  but  at  Canaan,  New 
Hampshire,  that  on  August  10,  1835,  the  build 
ing  of  the  Noyes  Academy,  open  to  pupils  of 
both  colors,  in  pursuance  of  a  formal  town- 
meeting  vote  that  it  be  "removed,"  was  dragged 
by  one  hundred  yoke  of  oxen  from  the  land  be 
longing  to  the  corporation,  and  left  on  the  com 
mon,  three  hundred  yeomen  of  the  county  par 
ticipating.  The  teacher  and  colored  pupils 
were  given  a  month  in  which  to  quit  the  town.f 

Throughout  New  England,  less  than  thirty 
years  before  the  promulgation  of  the  emancipa 
tion  proclamation  abolitionists  encountered  not 

* "  Carriage  in  public  conveyances  was  denied  them  ; 
physicians  would  not  wait  upon  them  ;  Miss  Crandall's 
own  family  and  friends  were  forbidden  under  penalty  of 
heavy  fines  to  visit  her  ;  the  well  was  filled  with  manure, 
and  water  from  other  sources  refused  ;  the  house  itself  was 
smeared  with  filth,  assailed  with  rotten  eggs,  and  finally  set 
on  fire."  ("  Life  of  William  Lloyd  Garrison,"  I.  p.  321.) 

f  Id.  p.  494. 


232  THE  NEGRO: 

only  opprobrium  but  violence.  When  George 
Thompson,  the  English  abolitionist,  went 
throughout  the  North  in  1835,  his  windows 
were  broken  in  Augusta,  Maine,  where  a  State 
anti-slavery  convention  was  in  progress,  and  a 
committee  of  citizens  requested  him  to  leave 
town  immediately  under  pain  of  being  mobbed 
if  he  reentered  the  convention.  At  Concord, 
New  Hampshire,  he  was  interrupted  with  mis 
siles  while  addressing  a  ladies'  meeting.  At 
Lowell,  Massachusetts,  on  his  second  visit,  in 
the  town  hall  a  brick-bat  thrown  from  without 
through  the  window  narrowly  escaped  his  head, 
and  in  spite  of  the  manliness  of  the  selectmen 
a  meeting  the  next  evening  was  abandoned  in 
the  certainty  of  fresh  and  deadly  assaults.* 

It  is  stated  in  a  letter  from  Mr.  William 
Lloyd  Garrison  that  Thompson  had  a  narrow 
escape  from  the  mob  at  Concord,  and  Whittier 
was  pelted  with  mud  and  stones. f  At  a  con 
vention  in  Lynn,  George  Thompson  was  stoned. 
The  next  evening  he  was  mobbed  by  three  hun 
dred  men. 

All  this  in  New  England.  Finally,  the  Eng 
lish  missionary  was  driven  out  of  the  coun- 

*  "  Life  of  William  Lloyd  Garrison,"  I.  p.  452. 
t/^-  P-  51?- 


THE   SOUTHERNER'S   PROBLEM      233 

try,  being  in  danger,  as  Garrison  wrote,  "  of 
assassination  even  in  the  streets  of  Bos 
ton."*  Indeed,  mobs  were  as  frequent  at 
that  period  in  New  England  as  they  could 
have  been  in  Virginia  or  South  Carolina  had 
the  abolitionists  attempted  to  preach  their 
doctrines  here.  William  Lloyd  Garrison  him 
self  was  assailed  and  denounced,  and  even  in 
the  city  of  Boston  was  subjected  to  the  bitter 
est  and  most  persistent  persecution.  He  was 
notified  to  close  up  the  office  of  his  paper,  The 
Liberator,  under  penalty  of  tar  and  feathers. 
A  placard  was  circulated,  stating  that  a  purse 
of  one  hundred  dollars  had  been  raised  to  re 
ward  the  first  man  who  should  lay  hands  on  the 
"  infamous  foreign  scoundrel  Thompson,"  so 
that  he  might  be  brought  to  the  tar-kettle  be 
fore  dark. 

Finally,  Garrison  himself  was  mobbed  in 
Boston,  torn  out  of  the  house  in  which  was  the 
office  of  the  Anti-Slavery  Society,  where  he  was 
attending  a  meeting  of  women,  dragged  through 
the  streets  of  Boston  with  a  rope  around  him, 
and  but  for  the  cleverness  of  two  sensible  men 
who  got  him  into  the  City  Hall  he  would  have 
been  killed.  Even  there  he  was  in  such  peril 
*  Letter  from  Garrison  to  his  wife,  November  9,  1835. 


234  THE  NEGRO: 

that  he  was  put  in  the  jail  to  keep  him  from 
the  mob,  which  came  near  getting  possession  of 
him  a  second  time. 

This  mob  was  not,  as  may  be  supposed,  a  mob 
of  the  creatures  who  usually  constitute  such  an 
assemblage,  but  is  said  to  have  been  composed  of 
respectable  and  well-dressed  persons.  Garrison, 
attacking  the  mayor  afterward,  in  the  press,  for 
not  taking  his  part  more  firmly,  declared  that 
if  it  had  been  a  mob  of  workingmen  assaulting 
a  meeting  of  merchants,  no  doubt  he  would 
have  acted  with  energy,  "  but  broadcloth  and 
money  alter  the  case."  *  Indeed,  he  says,  the 
mayor  acknowledged  that  "  the  city  govern 
ment  did  not  very  much  disapprove  of  the  mob 
to  put  down  such  agitators  as  Garrison  and 
those  like  him."  f 

It  is  notable  that  the  entire  press  of  Boston, 
with  hardly  more  than  one  or  two  exceptions, 
approved  the  action  of  the  mob  and  censured 
Garrison. 

This   is  what   Garrison   himself  said  of   it: 

"  i.  The  outrage  was  perpetrated  in  Boston, 
the  cradle  of  liberty,  the  city  of  Hancock  and 
Adams,  the  headquarters  of  refinement,  litera- 

*Lib.  5,  197. 

f"Life  of  William  Lloyd  Garrison,"  II.  p.  35. 


THE   SOUTHERNER'S   PROBLEM      235 

ture,  intelligence,  and  religion.  No  comments 
can  add  to  the  infamy  of  this  fact. 

"  2.  It  was  perpetrated  in  the  open  daylight 
of  heaven,  and  was  therefore  most  unblushing 
and  daring  in  its  features." 

"  3.  It  was  dastardly  beyond  precedent,  as  it 
was  an  assault  of  thousands  upon  a  small  body 
of  helpless  females.  Charleston  and  New  Or 
leans  have  never  acted  so  brutally. 

"  4.  It  was  planned  and  executed,  not  by  the 
rabble  or  the  workingmen,  but  by  *  gentlemen 
of  property  and  standing,  from  all  parts  of  the 
city' — and  now  (October  25th)  that  time  has 
been  afforded  for  reflection,  it  is  still  either 
openly  justified  or  coldly  disapproved  by  the 
*  higher  classes,'  and  exultation  among  them  is 
general  throughout  the  city.  .  .  ." 

"5.  It  is  evidently  winked  at  by  the  city 
authorities.  No  efforts  have  been  made  to  ar 
rest  the  leading  rioters.  .  .  ." 

All  of  this  was  within  three  years  of  the 
time  when  a  bill  to  abolish  slavery  in  Virginia 
had  failed  in  her  General  Assembly  by  only  one 
vote  and  that  vote  the  casting  vote  of  the 
speaker. 

There  is  surely  no  necessity  to  pile  up  more 
authority  on  this  point.  If  there  were  it  could 


236  THE  NEGRO: 

be  done ;  for  not  only  in  New  England,  but  else 
where  in  the  North,  instances  can  be  cited  in 
which  violence,  and  once  even  murder,  occurred. 
Elijah  P.  Lovejoy,  after  having  his  printing- 
office  sacked  three  times,  fell  a  martyr  to  the  fe 
rocity  of  a  mob  in  Illinois  for  having,  under  an 
instinct  of  humanity,  aided  a  fugitive  slave  to 
escape.  On  one  thing,  however,  the  North  may 
with  justice  pride  itself:  that  in  the  end,  there 
was  awakened  in  it  a  general  sentiment  for 
emancipation.  For  this  it  was  indebted  to  a 
work  of  genius  produced  by  a  woman;  a  ro 
mance  which  touched  the  heart  of  Christendom. 
"  Uncle  Tom's  Cabin  "  overruled  the  Supreme 
Court  of  the  United  States,  and  abrogated  the 
Constitution.  By  arousing  the  general  senti 
ment  of  the  world  against  slavery,  it  contributed 
more  than  any  other  one  thing  to  its  abolition 
in  that  generation. 

But  not  even  then  did  the  North  set  out  to 
abolish  slavery.  President  Lincoln  is  univer 
sally  accredited  as  the  emancipator  of  the  Afri 
can.  It  is  his  hand  which  is  represented  in 
bronze  and  marble  as  striking  the  shackles  from 
the  slave.  He  was  the  chosen  and  great  stand- 
ard-bearer,of  the  most  advanced  element  of  the 
North,  the  great  representative  of  their  ideas, 


THE   SOUTHERNER'S   PROBLEM      237 

the  idolized  chief  magistrate,  and  the  trusted 
commander  of  their  armies. 

His  words  on  this  subject  must  be  authorita 
tive. 

On  the  22d  of  December,  1860,  after  South 
Carolina  had  seceded,  he  says :  "  Do  the  South 
ern  people  really  entertain  fears  that  a  Republi 
can  administration  would  directly  or  indirectly 
interfere  with  the  slaves  or  with  them  about 
their  slaves?  .  .  .  The  South  would  be  in  no 
more  danger  in  this  respect  than  it  was  in  the 
days  of  Washington." 

On  the  4th  of  March,  1861,  in  his  official 
utterance,  his  inaugural  address,  he  says:  "I 
have  no  purpose  directly  or  indirectly  to  inter 
fere  with  the  institution  of  slavery  in  the  States 
where  it  now  exists.  I  believe  I  have  no  lawful 
right  to  do  so,  and  I  have  no  inclination  to  do 
so." 

If  there  can  possibly  be  a  more  authoritative 
declaration  than  this,  we  have  it  in  a  resolution 
passed  by  Congress  of  the  United  States,  and 
signed  by  Lincoln  as  President  in  July,  1861, 
after  the  battle  of  Manassas: 

"  Resolved  .  .  .  that  this  war  it  not 
waged  upon  our  part  in  any  spirit  of  oppression, 
nor  for  any  purpose  of  conquest  or  subjugation, 


238  THE  NEGRO: 

nor  purpose  of  overthrowing  or  interfering 
with  the  rights  or  established  institutions  of 
those  States,  but  to  defend  and  maintain  the 
supremacy  of  the  Constitution  and  to  preserve 
the  Union  with  all  the  dignity,  equality,  and 
rights  of  the  several  States  unimpaired,"  etc. 

Slave-holding  even  in  Federal  territory  was 
not  forbidden  until  June  19,  1862,  which  was 
just  a  month  before  the  bill  was  passed  provid 
ing  that  all  "  slaves  of  persistent  rebels  found 
in  any  place  occupied  or  commanded  by  the 
forces  of  the  Union  should  not  be  returned  to 
their  masters  [as  they  had  hitherto  been  under 
the  law],  and  providing  that  they  might  be  en 
listed  to  fight  for  the  Union." 

A  Constitutional  Amendment  (the  Thir 
teenth),  abolishing  and  prohibiting  evermore 
the  enslavement  of  human  beings,  failed  to  pass 
in  the  House  of  Representatives  in  the  session 
of  1864,  and  would  have  failed  altogether  had 
not  a  member  from  Ohio  changed  his  vote  in 
order  to  move  a  reconsideration  and  keep  it 
alive  till  the  following  session,  when  Mr.  Lin 
coln  having  been  reelected,  and  having  recom 
mended  its  passage,  and  the  war  being  evidently 
near  its  end,  it  was  passed  by  a  vote  of  1 19  yeas 
to  57  nays. 


THE   SOUTHERNER'S   PROBLEM      239 

Indeed,  before  Mr.  Lincoln  issued  his  eman 
cipation  proclamation  he  gave  one  hundred 
days'  warning  to  the  revolutionary  States  to  lay 
down  their  arms,  and  in  the  proclamation  he 
places  the  entire  matter  forever  at  rest  by  de 
claring  in  terms,  in  that  unmistakable  English 
of  which  he  was  a  master,  that  the  measure  was 
adopted  "  upon  military  necessity." 

No  one  can  read  this  record  and  not  admit 
that  slavery  was  abolished  in  the  providence  of 
God,  against  the  intention  of  the  North  and 
of  the  South  alike,  because  its  purpose  had  been 
accomplished,  and  the  time  was  ripe  for  its 
ending. 


THE  next  step  is  the  discussion  of  the  attitude 
in  which  we,  the  white  people  of  the  South, 
stand  to  the  Negro.  This  attitude  is  too  strik 
ing,  if  not  too  anomalous,  not  to  have  attracted 
wide  attention.  A  race  with  an  historic  and 
glorious  past,  in  a  high  stage  of  civilization, 
stands  confronted  by  a  race  of  their  former 
slaves,  invested  with  every  civil  and  political 
right  which  they  themselves  possess,  and  sup 
ported  by  an  outside  public  sentiment,  which  if 


240  THE  NEGRO: 

not  inimical  to  the  dominant  race,  is  at  least  un 
sympathetic.  The  two  races  cannot  be  termed 
with  exactness  hostile — in  many  respects,  not 
even  unfriendly;  but  they  are  suspicious  of  each 
other;  their  interests  are  in  some  essential  par 
ticulars  conflicting,  and  in  others  may  easily  be 
made  so;  the  former  slave  race  has  been  for 
over  thirty  years  politically  useful  to  the  out 
siders  by  whose  sentiment  they  are  sustained, 
and  the  former  dominant  race  is  unalterably  as 
sertive  of  the  imperative  necessity  that  it  shall 
govern  the  inferior  race  and  not  be  governed 
by  it. 

Now  what  is  the  question?  Is  it  merely  the 
question,  "  whether  the  Negro  shall  not  have 
the  right  to  choose  his  own  rulers  " ;  or  is  it  a 
great  race  issue  between  the  Negro  and  the 
White? 

If  it  is  a  question  of  mere  perverse  imposi 
tion  by  the  white  on  the  black,  by  the  stronger 
on  the  weaker,  a  refusal  to  recognize  his  just 
rights,  then  the  advocates  of  that  side  are  right. 
If,  however,  it  be  the  other,  then  the  stronger 
race  should  be  sustained,  or  else  the  people  of 
the  North  are  guilty  of  the  fatuity  which  de 
stroys  nations. 

The   chief  complication  of  the  matter  has 


THE  SOUTHERNER'S   PROBLEM      241 

arisen  from  the  possession  of  the  elective  fran 
chise  by  the  newly  emancipated  Negro,  and  the 
peculiar  circumstances  which  surround  this  pos 
session.  The  very  method  of  the  bestowal  of 
this  franchise  was  pregnant  with  baleful  results. 
It  was  given  him  not  as  a  righteous  and  reason 
able  act;  not  because  he  was  considered  capable 
of  exercising  the  highest  function  of  citizenship : 
the  making  of  laws,  and  the  execution  of  laws; 
not  with  the  philosophic  deliberation  which 
should  characterize  an  act  by  which  four  mill 
ions  of  new  citizens  of  a  distinct  and  inferior 
race  are  suddenly  added  to  the  nation;  but  in 
heat,  in  a  spirit  of  revenge,  and  chiefly  because 
the  cabal  which  then  controlled  the  Republic 
thought  that  with  the  Negro  as  an  ally  it  could 
dominate  the  South  and  perpetuate  its  own 
power.  The  South,  just  emerging  from  the 
furious  struggle  of  war,  physically  prostrate, 
but  with  its  dauntless  spirit  unbroken,  confiding 
in  its  own  integrity  of  purpose,  and  vainly  be 
lieving  that  as  the  Constitution  was  the  aegis 
under  which  the  North  had  claimed  to  fight, 
the  constitutional  rights  for  which  it  had  itself 
contended  would  be  observed  and  respected, 
accepted  the  emancipation  of  the  Negro,  but 
not  unnaturally  found  itself  unwilling,  indeed 


242  THE  NEGRO: 

unable,  to  accept  all  that  this  emancipation 
might  import.  The  North,  partly  in  distrust  of 
the  sincerity  of  even  the  measure  of  acceptance 
which  the  South  avowed;  partly  in  the  belief  in 
the  minds  of  a  considerable  portion  of  its  peo 
ple  that  the  Negro  might  thus  be  elevated,  and 
that  he  would,  at  least,  be  enabled  to  protect 
himself;  but  mainly  to  govern  the  intrepid  and 
difficult  South,  at  the  instance  of  the  partisan 
leaders  who  then  directed  the  destinies  of  the 
Republic,  struck  down  constitutional  government 
throughout  the  South,  and  restored  it  only  when 
it  had  placed  it  in  the  Negro's  hands. 

No  such  act  of  fatuity  ever  emanated  from  a 
nation.  Justification  it  can  have  none;  its  best 
excuse  must  be  that  it  was  accomplished  under 
a  certain  enthusiasm  just  after  a  bitter  war,  and 
before  passion  had  cooled  sufficiently  for  reason 
to  reassert  her  sway.  It  was  a  people's  insan 
ity.  The  "  Reconstruction  of  the  South  "  was, 
on  the  part  of  the  people  of  the  North  at  large, 
simply  that  which  in  national  life  is  worse  than 
a  crime,  a  blunder;  on  the  part  of  the  leaders 
who  planned  it  and  carried  it  through,  it  was 
a  cool,  deliberate,  calculated  act,  violative  of 
the  terms  on  which  the  South  had  surrendered 
and  disbanded  her  broken  armies,  and  perpe- 


THE  SOUTHERNER'S   PROBLEM      243 

trated  for  the  purpose  of  securing — not  peace, 
not  safety,  not  righteous  acknowledgment  of 
lawfully  constituted  authority,  but  personal 
power  to  the  leaders  of  the  party  which  at  that 
time  was  dominant,  power  with  all  that  it  im 
plied  of  gain  and  revenge.  For  this  they  took 
eight  millions  of  the  Caucasian  race,  a  people 
which  in  their  devotion  and  their  self-sacrifice, 
in  their  transcendent  vigor  of  intellect,  their  in 
trepid  valor  in  the  field,  and  their  fortitude  in 
defeat,  had  just  elevated  their  race  in  the  eyes 
of  mankind,  and  placed  them  under  the  domina 
tion  of  their  former  slaves.  There  is  nothing 
like  it  in  modern  history. 

Within  two  months  after  Lee's  surrender  at 
Appomattox  there  was  not  a  Confederate 
within  the  limits  of  the  Southern  States  who 
had  not  accepted  honestly  the  status  of  affairs. 

On  the  1 8th  of  December,  1865,  General 
Grant,  who  had  been  sent  through  the  South 
to  inspect  and  make  a  report  on  its  condition, 
in  his  report  to  the  President  said: 

"  I  am  satisfied  the  mass  of  thinking  men  in 
the  South  accept  the  present  situation  of  affairs 
in  good  faith.  The  questions  which  have  hith 
erto  divided  the  sentiment  of  the  people  of  the 
two  sections — slavery  and  State-rights,  or  the 


244  THE  NEGRO: 

right  of  the  State  to  secede  from  the  Union — 
they  regard  as  having  been  settled  forever  by 
the  highest  tribunal,  that  of  arms,  that  man  can 
resort  to." 

Shortly  after  the  assembling  of  Congress  in 
December,  1865,  the  President  was  able  to 
state  that  the  people  of  North  Carolina,  South 
Carolina,  Georgia,  Alabama,  Mississippi,  Loui 
siana,  Arkansas,  and  Tennessee  had  reorganized 
their  State  governments.  The  conventions  of 
the  seceding  States  had  all  repealed  or  declared 
null  and  void  the  ordinances  of  secession.  The 
laws  were  in  full  operation,  and  the  States  were 
in  reality  back  in  the  Union,  with  duly  elected 
representatives,  generally  men  who  had  been 
Union  men,  waiting  to  be  admitted  to  Congress 
when  it  should  assemble.* 

Had  Lincoln  but  been  here,  how  different 
might  have  been  the  story!  His  wisdom,  his 
sound  sense,  his  catholic  spirit,  his  pride  in  the 
restored  Union  which  he  had  preserved,  his  pa 
triotism,  would  have  governed.  For  two  years 

*  In  Virginia  the  Legislature  which  assembled  in  Decem 
ber,  1865,  had  in  the  House  of  Delegates  but  one  member 
who  was  not  an  old-time  Whig,  and  in  the  Senate  it  was 
"  pretty  much  the  same."  ("  The  Political  Hist,  of  Va., 
During  Reconstruction,"  by  Hamilton  James  Eckenrode, 
p.  41.  Johns  Hopkins  Press,  1904.) 


THE   SOUTHERNER'S   PROBLEM      245 

the  influence  of  his  views  remained  too  potent 
to  be  overcome.  Johnson,  who  had  not  much 
love  for  the  South,  had  caught  enough  of  his 
liberal  and  patriotic  spirit  to  attempt  the  con 
tinuance  of  his  pacific,  constitutional,  and  saga 
cious  policy.  But  he  lacked  his  wisdom,  and 
by  the  end  of  two  years  the  dominant  will  of 
Thad.  Stevens  and  his  lieutenants  had  suffi 
ciently  warped  public  opinion  to  bend  it  to 
their  pleasure  and  subvert  it  to  their  purpose. 
Thad.  Stevens  gave  the  keynote.  On  the  I4th 
of  December,  1865,  he  said:  "According  to 
my  judgment  they  (the  insurrectionary  States) 
ought  never  to  be  recognized  as  capable  of  act 
ing  in  the  Union,  or  of  being  counted  as  valid 
States,  until  the  Constitution  shall  have  been  so 
amended  as  to  make  it  what  its  makers  intended, 
and  so  as  to  secure  perpetual  ascendancy  to  the 
party  of  the  Union." 

Charles  Sumner  was  not  behind  him.  He 
declared  in  January,  1867,  that  unless  universal 
suffrage  were  conferred  on  all  Negroes  in  the 
disorganized  States,  "  you  will  not  secure  the 
new  allies  who  are  essential  to  the  national 


cause." 


In  pursuance  of  the  scheme  of  Stevens,   in 
March,    1867,  acts  were  passed  by  Congress, 


246  THE  NEGRO: 

virtually  wiping  out  the  States  of  Virginia, 
North  and  South  Carolina,  Georgia,  Alabama, 
Mississippi,  Louisiana,  Arkansas,  Florida,  and 
Texas,  and  dividing  the  territory  into  military 
districts,  under  military  rulers,  who  were  to 
have  absolute  power  over  life,  property,  and 
liberty,  subject  only  to  the  proviso  that  death 
sentences  should  be  approved  by  the  President. 

When  they  were  again  created  States,  and 
brought  back  into  the  Union,  the  Whites  had 
been  disfranchised,  and  the  Negro  had  been 
created  a  voter,  drafted  into  the  Union  League, 
drilled  under  his  carpet-bag  officers,  and  ac 
cepted  as  the  new  ally  through  whom  was  to 
be  secured  "  the  perpetual  ascendancy  of  the 
party  of  the  Union." 

Lincoln  in  his  wisdom  and  patriotism  had 
never  dreamed  of  such  a  thing.  His  only  "  sug 
gestion  "  had  been  to  let  in  "  some  of  the  col 
ored  people,  ...  as,  for  instance,  the  very 
intelligent."  * 

The  history  of  that  period,  of  the  reconstruc 
tion  period  of  the  South,  has  never  been  fully 
told.  It  is  only  beginning  to  be  written. f 

*  Lincoln's  letter  to  Governor  Hahn,  March  13,  1864. 

t  A  valuable  contribution  to  it,  entitled  "  Noted  Men  on 
the  Solid  South,"  has  recently  appeared,  and  to  the  papers 
comprised  in  it  I  am  indebted  for  much  material  in  this 
branch  of  my  subject. 


THE  SOUTHERNER'S   PROBLEM      247 

When  that  history  shall  be  told  it  will  constitute 
the  darkest  stain  on  the  record  of  the  American 
people.  The  sole  excuse  which  can  be  pleaded 
at  the  bar  of  posterity,  is  that  the  system  was 
inaugurated  in  a  time  of  excitement  which  was 
not  short  of  frenzy. 

Ever  since  the  Negro  was  given  the  ballot  he 
has,  true  to  his  teaching,  steadily  remained  the 
ally  of  the  party  which  gave  it  to  him,  follow 
ing  its  lead  with  more  than  the  obedience  of  the 
slave,  and  on  all  issues,  in  all  times,  opposing 
the  respectable  white  element  with  whom  he 
dwelt  with  a  steadfast  habitude  which  is  only 
explicable  on  the  ground  of  steadfast  purpose. 
The  phenomenon  has  been  too  marked  to  es 
cape  observation.  The  North  has  drawn  from 
it  the  not  unnatural  inference  that  the  Negro 
is  oppressed  by  the  White,  and  thus  at  once  as 
serts  his  independence  and  attempts  to  obtain 
his  rights.  The  South,  knowing  that  he  is  not 
oppressed,  draws  therefrom  the  juster  inference 
that  he  naturally,  wilfully,  and  inevitably  allies 
himself  against  the  White  simply  upon  a  race 
line  and  stands,  irrespective  of  reason,  in  per 
sistent  opposition  to  all  measures  which  the 
White  advocates. 

The  North  sees  in  the  Negro's  attitude  only 
the  proper  and  laudable  aspiration  of  a  citizen 


248  THE  NEGRO: 

and  a  man ;  the  South  detects  therein  a  desire  to 
dominate,  a  menace  to  all  that  the  Anglo- 
American  race  has  effected  on  this  continent, 
and  to  the  hopes  in  which  that  race  established 
this  nation. 


VI 

To  ascertain  which  is  the  correct  view  it 
might  be  well  at  this  point  to  examine  the  his 
tory  of  the  Negro  and  his  capacity  as  a  citizen. 

In  discussing  this  matter  we  are  fortunately 
not  relegated  to  the  shadowy  and  uncertain 
domain  of  mere  theory;  the  argument  may  be 
based  on  the  firm  and  assured  foundation  of 
actual  experience. 

In  the  first  place,  whatever  a  sentimental 
philanthropy  may  say;  whatever  a  modern  and 
misguided  humanitarianism  may  declare,  there 
underlies  the  whole  matter  the  indubitable,  po 
tent,  and  mysterious  principle  of  race  quality. 
Ethnologically,  historically,  congenitally,  the 
white  race  and  the  Negro  differ  widely. 

Slavery  will  not  alone  account  for  it  all.  In 
the  recorded  experience  of  mankind  slavery — 
mere  slavery — has  not  repressed  intelligence; 
the  bonds  of  the  person,  however  tightly  drawn, 


THE   SOUTHERNER'S   PROBLEM      249 

have  not  served  to  shackle  the  mind.  Slavery 
existed  among  the  Greeks,  the  Romans,  the 
Phoenicians,  among  our  own  ancestors  of  the 
Teuton  race :  slavery  as  absolute,  as  inexorable 
as  ever  was  African  slavery.  Indeed,  under 
some  of  those  systems  there  was  absolute  chattel 
slavery,  which  never  existed  with  us,  for  the 
Greek  and  the  Roman  possessed  over  their 
slaves  the  absolute  power  of  life  and  death; 
they  might  slay  them  as  an  exhibition  for  their 
guests,  or  might  cast  them  into  their  fish-ponds 
as  food  for  their  lampreys. 

Yet  under  these  systems,  differentiated  from 
African  slavery  by  the  two  conditions  of  race 
similarity  and  intellectual  potentiality,  slaves 
attained  not  unfrequently  to  high  position,  and 
from  them  issued  some  of  the  most  notable  lit 
erary  productions  of  those  times,  ^sop,  Ter 
ence,  Epictetus  the  Stoic  were  slaves.  These 
and  many  more  have  proved  that  where  the  in 
tellectual  potentiality  exists  it  will  burst  through 
the  encumbering  restraints  of  servitude,  and 
establish  the  truth  that  bondage  cannot  enthrall 
the  mind. 

What  of  value  to  the  human  race  has  the 
Negro  mind  as  yet  produced?  In  art,  in  me 
chanical  development,  in  literature,  in  mental 


250  THE  NEGRO: 

and  moral  science,  in  all  the  range  of  mental 
action,  no  notable  work  has  up  to  this  time 
come  from  a  Negro. 

In  the  earliest  records  of  the  human  race,  the 
monuments  of  Egypt  and  Syria,  he  is  depicted 
as  a  slave  bearing  burdens;  after  tens  of  centu 
ries  he  is  still  a  menial.  Four  thousand  years 
have  not  served  to  whiten  the  pigments  of  the 
frame,  nor  developed  the  forces  of  the  intellect. 
The  leopard  cannot  change  his  spots  to-day,  nor 
the  Ethiopian  his  skin,  any  more  than  they 
could  in  the  days  of  Jeremiah  the  son  of 
Hilkiah. 

It  is  not  argued  that  because  a  Negro  is  a 
Negro  he  is  incapable  of  any  intellectual  devel 
opment.  On  the  contrary,  observation  has  led 
me  to  think  that  under  certain  conditions  of 
intellectual  environment,  of  careful  training, 
and  of  sympathetic  encouragement  from  the 
stronger  races  he  may  individually  attain  a  fair, 
and  in  uncommon  instances  a  considerable  de 
gree,  of  mental  development.  To  deny  this  is 
to  deny  the  highest  attribute  of  the  intellectual 
essence,  and  is  to  shut  the  door  of  hope  upon 
a  race  of  God's  human  creatures  to  whom  I  give 
my  sympathy  and  my  good-will.  But  the  incon 
testable  proof  is  that  such  cases  of  intellectual 


THE   SOUTHERNER'S   PROBLEM      251 

development  are  exceptional  instances,  and  that 
after  long,  elaborate,  and  ample  trial  the  Negro 
race  has  failed  to  discover  the  qualities  which 
have  inhered  in  every  race  of  which  history 
gives  the  record,  which  has  advanced  civiliza 
tion,  or  has  shown  capacity  to  be  itself  greatly 
advanced. 

Where  the  Negro  has  thriven  it  has  invari 
ably  been  under  the  influence  and  by  the  assist 
ance  of  the  stronger  race.  Where  these  have 
been  wanting,  whatever  other  conditions  have 
existed,  he  has  sensibly  and  invariably  reverted 
toward  the  original  type.  Liberia,  Hayti, 
Congo,  are  all  in  one  line. 

His  history  on  his  native  continent  is  preg 
nant  with  suggestion.  As  far  as  the  East  is  from 
the  West,  Negro-Africa  is  from  the  land  of 
civilization.  Generations  have  come  and  gone; 
centuries  have  followed  centuries;  peoples  have 
succeeded  peoples;  nations  have  been  grafted 
on  nations,  more  and  more  crowned  with  the 
sunlight  of  progress  and  of  civilization ;  but  no 
faintest  beam  has  ever  pierced  the  impenetrable 
gloom  of  the  "  Dark  Continent,"  and  the  last 
African  explorer's  latest  book  is  "  Darkest 
Africa." 

This  has  not  been  because  opportunity  has 


252  THE  NEGRO: 

been  wanting.  Civilization  first  lit  her  golden 
torch  upon  her  borders.  The  swelling  waters 
of  the  Nile  spread  through  a  lettered  and  partly 
enlightened  people  when  the  Tiber  crept 
through  swamps  and  wilderness;  when  the 
Acropolis  was  a  wild,  and  the  seven  hills  of  the 
Eternal  City  a  range  for  wolves,  Thebes  and 
Memphis  and  Heliopolis  contained  a  civiliza 
tion  which  in  some  of  its  manifestations  has 
never  been  equalled  since.  Rome  stretched 
across  the  Mediterranean,  and  sent  her  civiliz 
ing  power  along  the  northern  shore  of  the  con 
tinent;  and  later,  the  Moors  possessed  a 
civilization  there  which  is  yet  a  marvel  even  to 
our  race.  In  that  record  which  all  Christendom 
holds  as  its  cherished  possession  we  catch 
glimpses  of  a  commerce  and  even  of  a  civiliza 
tion  situate  somewhere  within  the  boundaries  of 
Africa,  and  meeting  with  that  of  the  greatest 
monarch  of  the  time.  The  curtain  suddenly 
lifts  and  we  get  a  view  all  the  more  dazzling, 
because  so  mysterious,  of  a  queen  of  Ethiopia 
coming  with  wonderful  gifts  to  visit  Solomon 
himself. 

Since  then  civilization  has  swept  triumphant 
over  a  large  part  of  the  earth.  Only  the  land 
of  the  Negro  has  never  yielded  to  her  illumin- 


THE  SOUTHERNER'S   PROBLEM      253 

ing  and  vivifying  influence.  The  Roman  has 
succeeded  the  Greek;  the  Gaul  and  the  Frank 
have  risen  on  the  Roman;  the  Teuton,  the 
Saxon,  and  the  Celt  have  surpassed  the  Gaul. 
Only  in  Negro-Africa  has  barbarism  held  un 
broken  rule,  and  savagery  maintained  perpet 
ual  domain. 

Stanley,  Ward,  Glave,  and  Emin  Pasha 
found  but  a  few  years  since  the  great  Congo 
country  as  barbarous,  as  savage,  as  cannibal,  as 
it  was  five  thousand  years  ago,  province  preying 
on  province,  and  village  feeding  on  village,  as 
debased  and  brutish  as  the  beasts  of  the  jungle 
about  them. 

But  it  is  not  only  in  Africa  that  the  Negro 
has  exhibited  the  absence  of  the  essential  quali 
ties  of  a  progressive  race.  It  is  everywhere. 
Since  the  dawn  of  history,  the  Negro  has  been 
in  one  place  or  another,  in  Egypt,  in  Rome,  in 
other  European  countries,  brought  in  contact 
with  civilization,  yet  he  has  failed  to  receive 
the  vitalizing  current  under  which  other  races 
have  risen  in  greater  or  less  degree. 


254  THE  NEGRO: 


VII 


HERE  in  America  for  over  two  hundred 
years  the  Negro  has  been  under  the  immediate 
influence  of  the  most  potent  race  the  world  has 
known,  and  within  the  sweep  of  the  ripest  pe 
riod  of  the  world's  history. 

It  may  be  charged  that  as  a  slave  he  never 
had  an  opportunity  to  give  his  faculties  that 
exercise  which  is  necessary  to  their  development. 
But  the  answer  is  complete.  He  has  not  been 
a  slave  in  all  places,  at  all  times.  In  Africa  he 
was  not  a  slave,  save  to  himself  and  his  own 
instincts;  in  Rome  he  was  no  more  a  slave  than 
was  the  Teuton,  the  Greek,  or  the  Gaul;  in 
New  England  he  has  not  been  a  slave  for  over 
a  hundred  years,  and  may  be  assumed  to  have 
had  there  as  much  encouragement,  and  to  have 
received  as  sustaining  an  influence  as  will  ever 
be  accorded  him  by  the  White.  What  has  been 
the  result  even  in  New  England? 

Dr.  Henry  M.  Field  a  few  years  since  wrote  a 
book  of  travels  in  the  South  with  his  reflections 
thereon.  Dr.  Field  comes  of  a  distinguished 
Northern  family,  of  which  the  whole  country 
is  proud.  He  is  a  close  observer,  a  fair  re- 


THE   SOUTHERNER'S   PROBLEM      255 

corder,  and  the  friend  of  the  whole  human 
race.  He  will  not  be  accused  of  prejudice. 
Speaking  of  the  present  intellectual  condition 
of  the  Negro  in  Massachusetts,  he  says : 

"  Yet  here  we  are  doomed  to  great  disap 
pointment.  The  black  man  has  had  every  right 
that  belongs  to  his  white  neighbor ;  not  only  the 
natural  rights  which,  according  to  the  Declara 
tion  of  Independence,  belong  to  every  human 
being — the  right  to  life,  liberty,  and  the  pursuit 
of  happiness — but  the  right  to  vote,  and  to  have 
a  part  in  making  the  laws.  He  could  own  his 
little  home,  and  there  sit  under  his  own  vine 
and  fig-tree  with  none  to  molest  or  make  him 
afraid.  His  children  could  go  to  the  same  com 
mon  schools,  and  sit  on  the  same  benches,  and 
learn  the  same  lessons  as  white  children. 

'  With  such  advantages,  a  race  that  had 
natural  genius  ought  to  have  made  great  prog 
ress  in  a  hundred  years.  But  where  are  the 
men  that  it  should  have  produced  to  be  the 
leaders  of  their  people?  We  find  not  one  who 
has  taken  rank  as  a  man  of  action  or  a  man 
of  thought;  as  a  thinker  or  a  writer;  as  artist 
or  poet;  as  discoverer  or  inventor.  The  whole 
race  has  remained  on  one  dead  level  of  me 
diocrity. 


256  THE  NEGRO: 

"  If  any  man  ever  proved  himself  a  friend 
of  the  African  race  it  was  Theodore  Parker, 
who  endured  all  sorts  of  persecution  and  social 
ostracism,  who  faced  mobs  and  was  hissed  and 
hooted  in  public  meetings,  for  his  bold  cham 
pionship  of  the  rights  of  the  Negro  race.  But 
rights  are  one  thing,  and  capacity  is  another. 
And  while  he  was  ready  to  fight  for  them  he 
was  very  despondent  as  to  their  capacity  for  ris 
ing  in  the  scale  of  civilization.  Indeed,  he  said 
in  so  many  words :  '  In  respect  to  the  power  of 
civilization,  the  African  is  at  the  bottom,  the 
American  Indian  next.'  In  1857  ne  wrote  to 
a  friend :  *  There  are  inferior  races  which  have 
always  borne  the  same  ignoble  relation  to  the 
rest  of  men  and  always  will.  In  two  genera 
tions  what  a  change  there  will  be  in  the  condi 
tion  and  character  of  the  Irish  in  New  England. 
But  in  twenty  generations  the  Negroes  will 
stand  just  where  they  are  now;  that  is,  if  they 
have  not  disappeared.' 

"  That  was  more  than  thirty  years  ago.  But 
to-day  I  look  about  me  here  in  Massachusetts, 
and  I  see  a  few  colored  men ;  but  what  are  they 
doing?  They  work  in  the  fields,  they  hoe  corn, 
they  dig  potatoes;  the  women  take  in  washing. 
I  find  colored  barbers  and  white-washers,  shoe- 


THE  SOUTHERNER'S   PROBLEM      257 

blacks  and  chimney-sweeps;  but  I  do  not  know 
a  single  man  who  has  grown  to  be  a  merchant 
or  a  banker,  a  judge  or  a  lawyer,  a  member  of 
the  legislature  or  a  justice  of  the  peace,  or  even 
a  selectman  of  the  town.  In  all  these  respects 
they  remain  where  they  were  in  the  days  of  our 
fathers.  The  best  friends  of  the  colored  race, 
of  whom  I  am  one,  must  confess  that  it  is  dis 
appointing  and  discouraging  to  find  that  with 
all  these  opportunities  they  are  little  removed 
from  where  they  were  a  hundred  years  ago."  * 

But  suppose  that  the  statements  of  others, 
whose  observation  has  enabled  them  to  pick  out 
a  well-to-do  lawyer  or  dentist  or  doctor  or 
restaurateur,  be  different,  it  only  proves  that  in 
individual  instances  they  may  rise  to  a  fair 
level;  it  simply  emphasizes  the  fact  that  these 
are  exceptions  to  the  great  rule,  and  does  not  in 
the  least  affect  the  argument,  which  is  that  the 
Negroes  as  a  race  have  never  exhibited  much 
capacity  to  advance;  that  as  a  race  they  are  in 
ferior  to  other  races. f 

Opportunity  is  afforded  us  to  examine  the 
Negro's  progress  in  two  countries  in  which  a 
civilization  was  created  for  him,  and  he  was 

*  Since  this  was  written,  a  certain  class  have  shown 
marked  signs  of  advance. 

t"  Sunny  Skies  and  Dark  Shadows,"  p.  144. 


258  THE  NEGRO: 

surrounded  by  every  condition  helpful  to 
progress. 

The  first  is  Liberia.  There  he  had  a  model 
republic  founded  by  the  Caucasian  solely  for 
his  benefit,  with  freedom  grafted  in  its  name. 
It  was  founded  in  as  splendid  hopes  as  even  this 
Republic  itself.  Christendom  gave  it  its  assist 
ance  and  its  prayers.  How  has  the  Negro  pro 
gressed  there  ?  Let  one  of  his  own  race  tell  the 
story,  one  who  was  thought  competent  to  repre 
sent  there  the  United  States.  Mr.  Charles  H. 
J.  Taylor,  late  Minister  from  the  United  States 
to  Liberia,  has  given  a  picture  of  life  in  Li 
beria,  which  cannot  be  equalled  save  in  some 
other  country  under  the  same  rule.  He  says, 
in  a  paper  published  in  the  Kansas  City  Times, 
April  22,  1888: 

"  Not  a  factory,  mill,  or  workshop,  of  any 
kind,  is  to  be  found  there.  They  (the  govern 
ment)  have  no  money  or  currency  in  circulation 
of  any  kind.  They  have  no  boats  of  any  char 
acter,  not  even  a  canoe,  the  two  gunboats  Eng 
land  gave  them  lying  rotten  on  the  beach." 
.  .  .  "  Look  from  morn  till  night  you  will 
never  see  a  horse,  a  mule,  a  donkey,  or  a  broken- 
in  ox.  They  have  them  not.  There  is  not  a 
buggy,  a  wagon,  a  cart,  a  slide,  a  wheelbarrow, 


THE   SOUTHERNER'S   PROBLEM      259 

in  the  four  counties.  The  natives  carry  every 
thing  on  their  heads." 

The  whole  picture  presented  is  hopeless. 

If  this  were  an  isolated  instance  we  might 
think  that  climatic  influences  or  the  proximity 
of  a  great  savage  continent  had  affected  the 
result.  But  we  have  nearer  home  a  yet  more 
striking  illustration,  a  yet  more  convincing  proof 
that  the  real  cause  was  the  Negro's  inability  to 
govern,  his  incapacity  to  rise. 

For  a  hundred  years  now  the  Negro  has  cast 
his  influence  over  sundry  of  the  West  Indies, 
and  has  had  sole  possession  of  one.  With  this 
Republic  constructed  by  our  fathers  before  him 
for  a  model,  he  has  since  1804  been  masquerad 
ing  at  governing  Hayti,  one  of  the  most  fertile 
spots  that  Spain  ever  ruled. 

A  more  fantastic  mummery  never  disgraced 
a  people  or  degraded  a  land.  From  the  time 
of  Toussaint  L'Ouverture  to  the  present  there 
has  not  been  a  break  in  the  darkness  which 
settled  upon  Santo  Domingo  when  it  passed 
under  the  control  of  the  Negro. 

The  bloody  Dessalines  aping  Napoleon,  and 
with  the  oath  of  allegiance  to  the  republic  yet 
warm  on  his  lips,  crowning  himself  "  Em 
peror  "  of  half  an  island;  the  brutal  Gonaives, 


260  THE  NEGRO: 

Boyer,  Soulouque,  and  their  like,  following  each 
other,  each  as  brutal  and  swinish  as  the  other,  or 
with  degrees  limited  only  by  their  capacity,  pre 
sent  a  picture  such  as  history  cannot  duplicate. 

We  have  accounts  of  Hayti  by  two  English 
men,  one  the  historian  Froude,  the  other,  Sir 
Spencer  St.  John,  for  years  British  resident  at 
Hayti,  both  of  whom  assert  that  they  have  no 
race  antipathy.  And  what  a  picture  do  they 
present!  Santo  Domingo,  once  the  Queen  of 
the  Antilles,  has  in  less  than  a  hundred  years 
of  Negro  rule  sunk  well-nigh  into  a  state  of 
primeval  barbarism. 

Sir  Spencer  St.  John,  in  his  astounding  work, 
4  The  Black  Republic,"  has  given  a  picture  of 
Hayti  under  Negro  rule  which  is  enough  to  give 
pause  alike  to  the  wildest  theorist  and  the  most 
vindictive  partisan.  He  takes  pains  to  tell  us 
that  he  has  lived  for  thirty-five  years  among 
colored  people  of  various  races,  and  has  no  prej 
udice  against  them;  that  the  most  frequent  and 
not  the  least  honored  guests  at  his  table  in 
Hayti  for  twelve  years  were  of  the  black  and 
colored  races.  The  picture  he  has  presented  is 
the  blackest  ever  drawn:  revolution  succeeding 
revolution,  and  massacre  succeeding  massacre; 
the  country  once,  under  white  rule,  teeming  with 


THE  SOUTHERNER'S   PROBLEM      261 

wealth  and  covered  with  beautiful  villas  and 
plantations,  with  u  a  considerable  foreign  com 
merce,  now  in  a  state  of  decay  and  ruin,  without 
trade  or  resources  of  any  kind;  peculation  and 
jobbery  paramount  in  all  public  offices  " ;  bar 
barism  substituted  for  civilization;  Voudou 
worship  in  place  of  Christianity,  and  occasions 
when  human  flesh  has  been  actually  sold  in  the 
market-place  of  Port  au  Prince,  the  capital  of 
the  country. 

Sir  Spencer  St.  John  says  that  a  Spanish  col 
league  once  said  to  him:  "  If  we  could  return 
to  Hayti  fifty  years  hence,  we  should  find  the 
negresses  cooking  their  bananas  on  the  site  of 
these  warehouses."  On  which  he  remarks:  "  It 
is  more  than  probable — unless  in  the  mean  time 
influenced  by  some  higher  civilization — that  this 
prophecy  will  come  true.  The  negresses  are, 
in  fact,  cooking  their  bananas  amid  the  ruins 
of  the  best  houses  of  the  capital." 

If  it  shall  seem  to  those  who  have  no  actual 
knowledge  upon  the  subject  that  I  have  over 
drawn  the  picture,  I  would  refer  them  to  the 
papers  which  I  have  cited,  and  the  works  which 
I  have  quoted,  and  to  the  great  body  of  the 
Southern  people  who  have  had  experience  of 
what  Negro  domination  imports. 


262  THE  NEGRO: 

What  has  been  stated  has  been  said  in  no 
feeling  of  personal  hostility,  or  even  unfriend 
liness  to  the  Negro,  for  I  have  no  unfriendliness 
toward  any  Negro  on  earth;  on  the  contrary,  I 
have  a  feeling  of  real  friendliness  toward  many 
of  that  race,  and  am  the  well-wisher  of  the 
whole  people. 

What  is  contained  in  this  paper  is  stated  under 
a  sense  of  duty,  with  the  hope  and  in  the  belief 
that  it  may  serve  to  call  attention  to  the  real 
facts  in  the  case;  that  it  may  help  to  discard 
from  the  discussion  all  mere  sentimentality  or 
prejudice,  and  to  base  the  future  consideration 
of  the  matter  upon  the  only  solid  ground — the 
ground  of  naked  fact. 

The  examples  cited,  if  they  establish  any 
thing,  establish  the  fact  that  the  Negro  race 
does  not  possess,  in  any  development  which  he 
has  yet  attained,  the  fundamental  elements  of 
character,  the  essential  qualifications  to  conduct 
a  government,  even  for  himself,  and  that  if  the 
reins  of  government  be  intrusted  to  his  unaided 
hands,  he  will  fling  reason  to  the  winds,  and 
drive  to  ruin.  Were  this,  however,  only  Hayti 
or  Liberia,  we  might  bear  it  with  such  philo 
sophic  patience  as  our  philanthropy  calls  to  our 
aid,  but  we  have  nearer  home  a  proof  not  less 


THE  SOUTHERNER'S   PROBLEM      263 

overwhelming  of  this  truth.  The  Negro  has 
had  control  of  the  government  in  the  Southern 
States;  for  eight  years  a  number  of  Southern 
States  were  partly,  and  three  of  them  were 
wholly  given  up  to  the  control  of  the  Negroes, 
directed  by  men  of,  at  least,  ability  and  experi 
ence,  and  sustained  by  the  invigorating  influ 
ence  of  the  entire  North.  It  was  "  an  experi 
ment  "  entered  on  with  "  enthusiasm." 

The  reconstruction  acts  gave  the  black  the 
absolute  right  of  suffrage,  and  disfranchised 
the  whites.  The  Negro  was  invested  with  abso 
lute  power,  and  turned  loose.  He  selected  his 
rulers.  The  entire  weight  of  the  government 
— an  immense  force — was  under  the  misappre 
hension,  born  of  the  passion  which  then  reigned, 
thrown  blindly  in  the  Negroes'  favor;  whatever 
they  asserted  was  believed;  whatever  they  de 
manded  was  done;  the  ballot  was  given  them, 
and  all  the  forms  established  by  generations  of 
Caucasian  patriots  and  jurists,  and  consecrated 
by  centuries  of  Caucasian  blood,  were  solemnly 
set  up  and  solemnly  followed.  The  Negro  at 
least  then  selected  his  own  rulers.  The  Negro 
had  thus  his  opportunity  then,  if  ever.  The 
North  had  put  him  up  as  a  citizen  against  the 
protest  of  the  South,  and  stood  obliged  to  sus- 


264  THE  NEGRO: 

tain  him.  What  was  the  result?  Such  a  riot 
of  folly  and  extravagance,  such  a  travesty  of 
justice,  such  a  mummery  of  government  as  was 
never  before  witnessed,  save  in  those  countries 
in  which  he  had  himself  furnished  the  illustra 
tion. 

In  Virginia,  where  the  Negroes  were  in  a 
numerical  minority  and  where  the  prowess  of 
the  Whites  had  been  but  now  displayed  before 
their  eyes  in  an  impressive  manner  which  they 
could  not  forget,  we  escaped  the  inconveniences 
of  carpet-baggism,  and  the  Hunnycuts,  Under 
woods,  and  such  vultures  kept  the  carcass  for 
their  own  picking,  and  were  soon  gorged  and 
put  to  flight.  But  it  was  not  so  where  the  Ne 
groes  were  in  a  large  majority.  In  South  Caro 
lina,  in  Louisiana,  in  Mississippi,  and  in  other 
Southern  States  there  was  a  very  carnival  of 
riot  and  rapine. 

Space  will  not  permit  the  going  into  detail. 
Reference  can  only  be  made  to  one  or  two  facts, 
from  which  the  whole  dreadful  story  may  be 
gathered.  Louisiana  will  be  first  cited. 

Warmouthism  and  Kelloggism,  in  Louisiana, 
and  carpet-baggism  generally,  with  all  their  en 
vironments  of  chicanery  and  venality,  and  all 
their  train  of  poverty  and  profligacy,  cannot  be 


THE  SOUTHERNER'S   PROBLEM      265 

done  justice  to  in  a  paper  of  this  character.  * 
Such  a  relation  of  theft,  debauchery,  and  crime 
has  not  been  found  outside  of  those  countries 
in  which  carpet-baggism  has  ruled,  with  the 
Negro  as  its  facile  and  ignorant  instrument. 

In  Louisiana,  soon  after  Warmouth  came 
into  office,  he  stated  in  his  message  of  4th  Janu 
ary,  1868,  to  his  legislature:  "Our  debt  is 
smaller  than  that  of  almost  any  State  in  the 
Union,  with  a  tax-roll  of  $251,000,000,  and 
a  bonded  debt  that  can  at  will  be  reduced  to 
$6,000,000.  There  is  no  reason  that  our  credit 
should  not  be  at  par."  This  was  too  good  a 
field  for  Warmouth  and  his  associates  to  lose. 
Says  Mr.  Sage:  "  The  census  of  1870  showed 
the  debt  of  the  State  to  have  increased  to  $25,- 
021,734,  and  that  of  the  parishes  and  munici 
palities  to  $28,065,707.  Within  a  year  the 
State  debt  was  increased  fourfold,  and  the  local 
indebtedness  had  doubled.  Louisiana,  accord 
ing  to  the  census,  stood,  in  the  matter  of  debt, 
at  the  head  of  the  Union."  f 

This  was  but  the  beginning.  The  total  cost 
of  four  years  and  five  months  of  Republican 

*  I  would  refer  to  the  valuable  paper  contributed  by  the 
Hon.  B.  J.  Sage  to  the  volume  "Noted  Men  on  the  Solid 
South,"  already  cited. 

t  "  Noted  Men  on  the  Solid  South,"  p.  404. 


266  THE  NEGRO: 

rule  amounted  to  $106,020,337,  or  $24,040,- 
089  per  year.  "  To  this,"  says  Mr.  Sage, 
"  must  be  added  the  privileges  and  franchises 
given  away  and  the  State  property  stolen."  * 
Taxation  went  up  in  proportion — in  some 
places  to  7  or  8  per  cent. ;  f  in  others  as  high 
as  1 6  per  cent.  $  This  was  confiscation. 

The  public  printing  of  the  State  had,  in  pre 
vious  years,  cost  about  $37,000  per  year.  Dur 
ing  the  first  two  years  of  Warmouth's  regime 
the  New  Orleans  Republican,  in  which  he  was 
a  principal  stockholder,  received  $1,140,881.77 
for  public  printing.  § 

When  Warmouth  ran  for  governor,  he  was 
so  poor  that  a  mite  chest  was  placed  beside  the 
ballot-box  to  receive  contributions  to  pay  his 
expenses  to  Washington.  When  he  had  been 
in  office  only  a  year,  it  was  estimated  that  he 
was  worth  $225,000,  and  when  he  retired  he 
was  said  to  have  had  one  of  the  largest  fortunes 
in  Louisiana. 

The  Louisiana  State  Lottery,  with  all  the 
debauchery  of  morals  and  sentiment  which  it 

*  "  Noted  Men  on  the  Solid  South,"  p.  406. 

f  Id.  p.  406. 

t  Dr.  Henry  M.  Field,  "Bright  Skies  and  Dark  Shadows." 

§  "Noted  Men  on  the  Solid  South,"  p.  408. 


THE  SOUTHERNER'S   PROBLEM      267 

has  occasioned,  was  chartered  by  Warmouth 
and  his  gang,  and  is  a  legacy  which  they  have 
left  to  the  people  of  that  State,  an  octopus 
which  they  have  vainly  striven  to  shake  off.* 
Time  fails  to  tell  of  the  rapine,  the  vice,  the 
profligacy  in  which  the  government — State  and 
municipal — was  the  prize  which  was  tossed 
about  like  a  shuttle-cock,  from  one  faction  to  the 
other;  of  the  midnight  orders  to  seize  the  gov 
ernment,  the  carnival  of  corruption  and  crime, 
until  the  Whites  were  forced  to  band  themselves 
into  a  league  to  prevent  absolute  anarchy.  It 
suffices  to  say  that  it  was  in  Louisiana  under 
Negro  rule  that  troops  were  marched  into  the 
State  House,  and  drove  out  the  assembled  rep 
resentatives  of  the  State,  at  the  point  of  the 
bayonet,  a  thing  which  has  happened  during 
peace  only  twice  before  in  the  history  of  mod 
ern  civilization,  once  under  Cromwell  and  once 
under  Napoleon. 

'  The  vampire  Warmouthism  had  reduced 
the  wealth  of  New  Orleans  from  $146,718,790 
at  Warmouth's  advent,  to  $88,613,930  at  Kel- 
logg's  exit — a  net  decline  of  $58,104,860  in 

*  Since  writing  this,  after  a  struggle  which  taxed  all  the 
civil  resources  of  the  government,  this  organization  has  been 
overthrown. 


268  THE  NEGRO: 

eight  years ;  while  real  estate  in  the  country  par 
ishes  had  shrunk  in  value  from  $99,266,839.85 
to  $47,141,696,  or  about  one-half.  During  this 
period  the  Republican  leaders  had  squandered 
nearly  $150,000,000,  giving  the  State  little  or 
nothing  to  show  therefor."  * 

In  Mississippi  the  corruption  was  almost  as 
great,  and  the  result  almost  as  disastrous.  The 
State  levy  for  1871  was  four  times  what  it  was 
in  1869;  for  1872  it  was  four  times  as  great; 
for  1873  it  was  eight  and  a  half  times  as  great; 
for  1874  it  was  fourteen  times  as  great.  Six 
million  four  hundred  thousand  acres  of  land, 
comprising  20  per  cent,  of  all  the  lands  in  the 
State,  had  been  forfeited  for  non-payment  of 
taxes. 

In  South  Carolina,  if  it  were  possible,  the 
situation  was  even  worse,  and  the  paper  contrib 
uted  to  the  series  to  which  I  have  already 
alluded,  by  the  Hon.  John  J.  Hemphill,  to 
which  I  wish  to  acknowledge  my  indebtedness, 
outlines  briefly  the  condition  of  affairs,  and  pre 
sents  a  picture  which  ought  to  be  read  by  every 
man  in  the  Union.  The  General  Assembly, 
which  convened  in  1868,  in  Columbia,  consisted 

*  "  Noted  Men  on  the  Solid  South,"  p.  427. 


THE  SOUTHERNER'S   PROBLEM      269 

of  72  Whites  and  85  Negroes.  In  the  house 
were  14  Democrats,  and  in  the  senate  7;  the 
remaining  136  were  Republicans.  One  of  the 
first  acts  passed  was  somewhat  anomalous. 
After  defending  the  rights  of  the  colored  man 
on  railroads,  in  theatres,  etc.,  it  provided  that 
if  a  person  whose  rights  under  the  act  were 
claimed  to  be  violated,  was  a  Negro,  then  the 
burden  of  proof  should  shift  and  be  on  the  de 
fendant,  and  he  should  be  presumed  to  be  guilty 
until  he  established  his  innocence.  This  Act 
was  more  or  less  expressive  of  the  spirit  in 
which  a  good  many  people  at  the  North  still 
appear  to  regard  all  questions  arising  between 
the  Southern  Whites  and  the  Negroes. 

When  the  legislature  met,  they  proceeded  to 
furnish  the  halls  at  a  cost  of  $50,000,  for  which 
they  appropriated  $95,000.  This  hall  has  since 
been  entirely  refurnished  at  a  cost  of  $3,061. 
They  paid  out  in  four  years,  for  furniture,  over 
$200,000,  and  when,  in  1877,  the  matter  was 
investigated,  it  was  found  that,  even  placing 
what  remained  at  the  original  purchase  price, 
there  was  left  by  them  in  the  State  House  only 
$17,715  worth;  the  rest  had  disappeared. 

"  They  opened  another  account,  known  un 
der  the  vague  but  comprehensive  head  of  '  Sup- 


270  THE  NEGRO: 

plies,  sundries,  and  incidentals.'  This  amounted, 
in  a  single  session,  to  $350,000.  For  six  years 
they  ran  an  open  bar  in  one  of  the  legislative 
committee  rooms,  open  from  8  A.M.,  to  3  P.M., 
at  which  all  the  officials  and  their  friends  helped 
themselves,  with  cost — save  to  the  unfortunate 
and  helpless  taxpayers. 

They  organized  railroad  frauds,  election 
frauds,  census  frauds,  general  frauds — what 
ever  they  organized  was  filled  with  fraud.  They 
enlisted  and  equipped  an  armed  force,  the  gov 
ernor — one  Scott — refusing  to  accept  any  but 
colored  companies.  Ninety-six  thousand  col 
ored  men  were  enrolled  at  a  cost,  for  the  simple 
enrolment,  of  over  $200,000.  One  thousand 
Winchester  rifles  were  obtained,  for  which  the 
State  was  charged  about  $38,000;  1,000,000 
cartridges  cost  the  State  $37,000;  10,000 
Springfield  muskets  were  bought,  and  charged 
at  a  cost,  they  claim,  of  $187,050;  it  was  all 
charged  to  the  State  at  $250,000.  The  troops, 
as  organized,  were  employed  by  Scott  and  the 
notorious  Moses  as  their  heelers  and  henchmen. 
The  armed  force,  or  constabulary,  were  armed 
and  maintained  for  the  same  purpose.* 

Governor  Scott  spent  $374,000  of  the  funds 

* "  Noted   Men   on  the   Solid   South,"  Mr.   Hemphill's 
paper,  p.  94. 


THE   SOUTHERNER'S   PROBLEM      271 

of  the  State  in  his  canvass.*  Eight  porters 
were  employed  in  the  State  House;  they  issued 
certificates  to  238;  eight  laborers  and  from  five 
to  twenty  pages  were  employed ;  certificates  were 
issued  to  159  of  the  former  and  124  of  the 
later.  One  lot  of  150  certificates  were  issued 
at  once — all  fraudulent.  During  one  session 
pay  certificates  were  issued  to  the  amount  of 
$1,168,255,  all  of  which  but  about  $200,000 
was  unvarnished  robbery. 

The  public  printing  was  another  field  for 
their  robbery.  The  total  cost  of  the  printing 
in  South  Carolina  for  the  eight  years  of  Repub 
lican  domination,  1868-76,  was  $1,326,589. 
The  total  cost  for  printing  for  78  years  pre 
vious — from  1790  to  1868 — was  $609,000, 
showing  an  excess  for  the  cost  of  printing  in 
eight  years,  over  7  8  years  previous,  of$7i7,589. 
The  average  cost  of  the  public  printing  under 
the  Republican  administration  per  year,  was 
$165,823  ;  average  cost  per  annum  under  Hamp 
ton's  administration,  $6,178.  The  amount  ap 
propriated  for  one  year,  1872-73,  by  the  Re 
publicans,  for  printing,  was  $450,000;  amount 
appropriated  in  25  years  ending  in  1866,  $278,- 
251.  Excess  of  one  year's  appropriation  over 

*  "  Noted  Men  on  the  Solid  South/'  p.  95. 


272  THE  NEGRO: 

25  years,  $171,749.  The  cost  of  printing  in 
South  Carolina  exceeded  in  one  year  by  $122,- 
932.13  the  cost  of  like  work  in  Massachusetts, 
New  York,  Pennsylvania,  Ohio,  and  Maryland 
together. 

In  1860  the  taxable  values  in  the  State 
amounted  to  $490,000,000,  and  the  tax  to  a 
little  less  than  $400,000.  In  1871  the  taxable 
value  had  been  reduced  to  $184,000,000,  and 
the  tax  increased  to  $2,000,000.  In  19  coun 
ties  taken  together,  93,293  acres  of  land  were 
sold  in  one  year  for  unpaid  taxes.  After  four 
years  of  Republican  rule,  the  debt  of  the  State 
had  increased  from  $5,407,306  to  $18,515,- 
033.  There  had  been  no  public  works  of  any 
importance,  and  the  "  entire  thirteen  millions  of 
dollars  represented  nothing  but  unnecessary  and 
profligate  expenditures  and  stealings. "  * 

The  governor's  pardon  was  a  matter  of  mere 
bargain  and  sale.  During  Moses's  term  of 
two  years,  he  issued  457  pardons — pardoning 
during  the  last  month  of  his  tenure  of  office 
46  of  the  1 68  convicts  whom  he  had  hitherto 
left  in  jail. 

In  May,  1875,  Governor  Chamberlain  de 
clared,  in  an  interview  with  a  correspondent  of 
*  "  Noted  Men  on  the  Solid  South,"  pp.  99-102. 


THE  SOUTHERNER'S   PROBLEM      273 

the  Cincinnati  Commercial,  that  when  at  the 
end  of  Moses's  administration  he  entered  on 
his  duties  as  governor,  200  trial  justices  were 
holding  offices  by  executive  appointment  who 
could  neither  read  nor  write.* 

These  statements  are  but  fragments  taken 
from  the  papers  by  Mr.  Hemphill,  Governor 
Hampton,  and  others,  who  cite  the  public  rec 
ords,  and  are  simply  bare  statistics.  No  ac 
count  has  been  taken  of  the  imposition  practised 
throughout  the  South  during  the  period  of 
Negro  domination;  of  the  vast,  incredible,  and 
wanton  degradation  of  the  Southern  people  by 
the  malefactors,  who,  with  hoards  of  ignorant 
Negroes  just  freed  from  the  bonds  of  slavery  as 
their  instruments,  trod  down  the  once  stately 
South  at  their  will.  No  wonder  that  Governor 
Chamberlain,  Republican  and  carpet-bagger  as 
he  was,  should  have  declared,  as  he  did  in  writ 
ing  to  the  New  England  Society:  "The  civil 
ization  of  the  Puritan  and  Cavalier,  of  the 
Roundhead  and  Huguenot,  is  in  peril."  f 

*  "  Noted  Men  on  the  Solid  South,"  p.  104. 

"j"  Governor  Chamberlain  has  recently  written  an  open 
letter  to  Mr.  James  Bryce,  the  eminent  English  student  of 
American  governmental  conditions,  in  which  after  thirty- 
odd  years'  experience  he  takes  absolutely  the  Southern  side 
of  the  Race  Question. 


274  THE  NEGRO: 

A  survey  of  the  field  and  a  careful  considera 
tion  of  the  facts  have  convinced  me  that  I  am 
within  the  bounds  of  truth,  when  I  say  that 
the  Southern  States,  with  the  exception,  perhaps, 
of  one  or  two  of  the  border  States,  were  better 
off  in  1868,  when  reconstruction  went  into 
force,  than  they  were  in  1876,  when  the  carpet 
bag  governments  were  finally  overthrown;  and 
that  the  eight  years  of  Negro  domination  in 
the  South  cost  the  South  directly  and  indirectly 
more  than  the  entire  cost  of  the  war,  inclusive 
of  the  loss  of  values  in  slave  property.  I 
think  if  Mr.  Cable,  and  those  who  accept  his 
theorem,  will  study  the  history  of  the  Southern 
States,  even  as  written  only  in  the  statistics,  tak 
ing  no  account,  if  they  please,  of  the  suffering 
and  the  humiliation  inflicted  on  the  white  race 
of  the  South  during  the  period  in  which  the 
South  was  under  the  domination  of  the  rulers 
selected  by  the  Negroes,  they  will  find  that  there 
is  not  so  much  difference  between  the  proposi 
tion  which  he  formulates  and  that  which  the 
South  states,  when  it  declares  that  the  pending 
question  is  one  of  race  domination,  on  which 
depends  the  future  salvation  of  the  American 
people. 


THE  SOUTHERNER'S   PROBLEM      275 

VIII 

TWENTY-SEVEN  years  have  rolled  by  since  the 
Negro  was  given  his  freedom;  nearly  twenty- 
five  years  have  passed  since  he  was  given  a  part 
in  the  government,  and  was  taken  up  to  be  edu 
cated.*  The  laws  were  so  adapted  that  there  is 
not  now  a  Negro  under  forty  years  old  who 
has  not  had  the  opportunity  to  receive  a  pub 
lic  school  education.  Through  private  philan 
thropy  these  public  schools  (many  of  which  are 
of  a  high  grade)  have  been  supplemented  by 
institutions  established  on  private  foundations. 
That  the  Negroes  have  had  a  not  ungeneral 
ambition  to  attend  school  is  apparent  from  the 
school  attendance  of  the  race,  as  shown  by  the 
statistics,  the  Negro  enrolment  in  the  schools 
for  the  session  of  1878-88  being  1,140,405,  or 
a  little  over  one-half  of  their  entire  school  pop 
ulation. 

Besides  this,  every  profession,  every  trade, 
and  every  department  of  life  have  been  open  to 
him  as  to  the  White ;  he  has  had  his  own  race  as 
his  constituency ;  he  has  possessed  the  backing  of 
the  North,  and  the  good-will  of  the  South.  But 
what  has  he  done?  What  has  he  attained? 
*  This  was  written  in  1892. 


276  THE  NEGRO: 

The  South  has  viewed  his  political  course 
with  suspicion,  and  in  this  field  of  activity  has 
opposed  him  with  all  her  resources;  but  she 
has  not  been  mean  or  niggardly  toward  him. 
On  the  contrary,  in  every  place,  at  all  times,  even 
while  she  was  resisting  and  assailing  him  for 
his  political  action,  she  has  displayed  toward 
him  in  the  expenditures  for  his  education  a 
liberality  which,  in  relation  to  her  ability, 
amounted  to  lavishness. 

The  Rev.  Dr.  A.  D.  Mayo,  eminent  alike 
for  his  learning  and  philanthropy,  and  a 
Northern  educator  of  note,  declared  not  long 
ago  that  "  No  other  people  in  human  history 
has  made  an  effort  so  remarkable  as  the  people 
of  the  South  in  reestablishing  their  schools  and 
colleges.  Overwhelmed  by  war  and  bad  gov 
ernment,  they  have  done  wonders,  and  with  the 
interest  and  zeal  now  felt  in  public  schools  in 
the  South,  the  hope  for  the  future  is  brighter 
than  ever."  u  Last  year,"  he  says,  speaking  in 
1888,  "  these  sixteen  States  paid  nearly  $1,000,- 
ooo  each  for  educational  purposes,  a  sum 
greater  according  to  their  means  than  ten  times 
the  amount  now  paid  by  most  of  the  New  Eng 
land  States." 

Virginia  has  expended  on  her  public  schools, 


THE  SOUTHERNER'S   PROBLEM      277 

including  the  session  of  1890-91,  according  to 
the  figures  of  Colonel  Ruffin,  the  Second  Audi 
tor  of  Virginia,  taken  from  official  sources, 
$23,380,309.97.  Her  Negro  schools  cost  her 
for  the  year  1889-90,  by  the  same  estimate, 
$420,000,  of  which  the  Negroes  paid  about 
$60,000.* 

Governor  Gordon,  of  Georgia,  in  a  recent 
address,  said  of  that  State :  "  When  her  people 
secured  possession  of  the  State  government, 
they  found  about  six  thousand  colored  pupils 
in  the  public  schools,  with  the  school  exchequer 
bankrupt.  To-day,  instead  of  six  thousand,  we 
have  over  one  hundred  and  sixty  thousand  col 
ored  pupils  in  the  public  schools,  with  the  ex 
chequer  expanding  and  the  schools  multiplying 
year  by  year."  He  says  further,  u  The  Negroes 
pay  one-thirtieth  of  the  expense,  and  the  other 
twenty-nine-thirtieths  are  paid  by  the  whites. " 

The  other  Southern  States  have  not  been  be 
hind  Virginia  and  Georgia  in  this  matter. 

Now  what  has  the  Negro  accomplished  in 
this  quarter  of  a  century?  The  picture  drawn 
by  Dr.  Field  of  his  accomplishment  in  Massa 
chusetts  would  do  for  the  South. 

"  They  work  in  the  fields,  they  hoe  corn,  they 
*  See  Appendix. 


278  THE  NEGRO: 

dig  potatoes;  the  women  take  in  washing." 
They  are  barbers  and  white-washers,  shoe-blacks 
and  chimney-sweeps.  Here  and  there  we  find 
a  lawyer  or  two,  unhappily  with  their  practice 
in  inverse  ratio  to  their  principle.  Or  now 
and  then  there  is  a  doctor.  But  almost  invari 
ably  these  are  men  with  a  considerable  infusion 
of  white  blood  in  their  veins.  And  even  they 
have,  in  no  single  instance,  attained  a  position 
which  in  a  white  would  be  deemed  above  me 
diocrity.  Fifteen  years  ago  there  were  in  Rich 
mond  a  number  of  Negro  tobacco  and  other 
manufacturers  in  a  small  way.  Now  there  are 
hardly  any  except  undertakers. 

They  do  not  appear  to  possess  the  faculties 
which  are  essential  to  conduct  any  business  in 
which  reason  has  to  be  applied  beyond  the  im 
mediate  act  in  hand. 

They  appear  to  lack  the  faculty  of  organiza 
tion  on  which  rests  all  successful  business  enter 
prise. 

They  have  been  losing  ground  as  mechanics. 
Before  the  war,  on  every  plantation  there  were 
first-class  carpenters,  blacksmiths,  wheelwrights, 
etc.  Half  the  houses  in  Virginia  were  built  by 
Negro  carpenters.  Now  where  are  they?  In 
Richmond  there  may  be  a  few  blacksmiths  and 


THE  SOUTHERNER'S   PROBLEM      279 

a  dozen  or  two  carpenters;  but  where  are  the 
others  ? 

A  great  strike  occurred  last  year  in  one  of 
the  large  iron-works  of  the  city  of  Richmond. 
The  president  of  the  company  stated  afterward 
that,  although  the  places  at  the  machines  were 
filled  later  on  by  volunteers,  and  although  there 
were  many  Negroes  who  did  not  strike  em 
ployed  in  the  works,  it  never  occurred  to  either 
the  management  or  to  the  Negroes  that  they 
could  work  at  the  machines,  and  not  one  had 
ever  suggested  it. 

The  question  naturally  arises,  Have  they  im 
proved?  Many  persons  declare  that  they  have 
not.  My  observation  has  led  to  a  somewhat 
different  conclusion.  Where  they  have  been 
brought  into  contact  with  the  stronger  race 
under  conditions  in  which  they  derived  aid,  as 
in  cities,  they  have  in  certain  directions  im 
proved;  where  they  have  lacked  this  stimulat 
ing  influence,  as  in  sections  of  the  country  where 
the  association  has  steadily  diminished,  they 
have  failed  to  advance.  In  the  cities,  where 
they  are  in  touch  with  the  whites,  they  are,  I 
think,  becoming  more  dignified,  more  self- 
respecting,  more  reasonable;  in  the  country, 
where  they  are  left  to  themselves,  I  fail  to  see 
this  improvement. 


280  THE  NEGRO: 

This  improvement,  however,  such  as  it  is, 
does  not  do  away  with  the  race  issue.  So  far 
from  it,  it  rather  intensifies  the  feeling,  certainly 
on  the  part  of  the  Negro,  and  makes  the  rela 
tion  more  strained.  Yet  it  is  our  only  hope. 
The  white  race,  it  is  reasonably  certain,  is  not 
going  to  be  ruled  by  the  Negro  either  North  or 
South.  That  day  is  far  off,  and  neither  Lodge 
bills  nor  any  other  bills  can  bring  it  about  until 
they  can  reverse  natural  law,  enact  that  igno 
rance  shall  be  above  intelligence,  and  exalt  feeble 
ness  over  strength.  The  history  of  that  race  is  a 
guarantee  that  this  cannot  be.  It  has  been  a  con 
quering  race  from  its  first  appearance,  like  the 
Scythians  of  old, 

"  Firm  to  resolve  and  steadfast  to  endure." 

The  section  of  it  which  inhabits  the  United 
States  is  not  yet  degenerate.  That  part  of  it 
at  the  South  assuredly  is  not.  It  is  not  neces 
sary  to  recall  its  history.  It  is  one  of  the  finest 
pages  in  the  history  of  the  human  race.  Let 
one  who  has  not  been  generally  regarded  as 
unduly  biassed  in  favor  of  the  South  speak  for 
it.  Senator  Hoar,  speaking  of  the  people  of 
the  South  on  the  floor  of  the  Senate,  in  the 
speech  already  referred  to,  said: 


THE   SOUTHERNER'S   PROBLEM      281 

They  have  some  qualities  which  I  cannot  even  presume 
to  claim  in  an  equal  degree  for  the  people  among  whom  I, 
myself,  dwell.  They  have  an  aptness  for  command  which 
makes  the  Southern  gentleman,  wherever  he  goes,  not  a 
peer  only,  but  a  prince.  They  have  a  love  for  home;  they 
have,  the  best  of  them,  and  the  most  of  them,  inherited 
from  the  great  race  from  which  they  come,  the  sense  of 
duty  and  the  instinct  of  honor  as  no  other  people  on  the 
face  of  the  earth.  They  are  lovers  of  home.  They  have 
not  the  mean  traits  which  grow  up  somewhere  in  places 
where  money-making  is  the  chief  end  of  life.  They  have, 
above  all,  and  giving  value  to  all,  that  supreme  and  superb 
constancy  which,  without  regard  to  personal  ambition  and 
without  yielding  to  the  temptation  of  wealth,  without  get 
ting  tired  and  without  getting  diverted,  can  pursue  a  great 
public  object,  in  and  out,  year  after  year  and  generation 
after  generation. 

This  is  the  race  which  the  Negro  confronts. 
It  is  a  race  which,  whatever  perils  have  im 
pended,  has  always  faced  them  with  a  steadfast 
mind. 

Professor  James  Bryce  in  a  recent  paper  on 
the  Negro  question  arrives  at  the  only  reason 
able  conclusion :  that  the  Negro  be  let  alone  and 
the  solution  of  the  problem  be  left  to  the  course 
of  events.  Friendship  for  the  Negro  demands 
this.  It  has  become  the  fashion  of  late  for  cer 
tain  Negro  leaders  to  talk  in  conventions  held 
outside  of  the  South  of  fighting  for  their  rights. 


282  THE  NEGRO: 

For  their  own  sake  and  that  of  their  race,  let 
them  take  it  out  in  talking.  A  single  outbreak 
would  settle  the  question. 

To  us  of  the  South  it  appears  that  a  proper 
race  pride  is  one  of  the  strongest  securities  of 
our  nation.  No  people  can  become  great  with 
out  it.  Without  it  no  people  can  remain  great. 
We  purpose  to  stand  upon  it. 

The  question  now  remains,  What  is  to  be 
come  of  the  Negro  ?  It  is  not  likely  that  he  will 
remain  in  his  present  status,  if,  indeed,  it  is 
possible  for  him  to  do  so.  Many  schemes  have 
been  suggested,  none  of  them  alone  answerable 
to  the  end  proposed.  The  deportation  plan 
does  not  seem  practicable  at  present.  It  is  easy 
to  suggest  theories,  but  much  more  difficult  to 
substantiate  them.  I  hazard  one  based  upon 
much  reflection  on  the  subject.  It  is,  that  the 
Negro  race  in  America  will  eventually  disap 
pear,  not  in  a  generation  or  a  century — it  may 
take  several  centuries.  The  means  will  be 
natural.  Certain  portions  of  the  Southern 
States  will  for  a  while,  perhaps,  be  almost  given 
up  to  him;  but  in  time  he  will  be  crowded  out 
even  there.  Africa  may  take  a  part;  Mexico 
and  South  America  a  part;  the  rest  will,  as  the 
country  fills  up,  as  life  grows  harder  and  compe 
tition  fiercer,  become  diffused  and  disappear, 


THE  SOUTHERNER'S   PROBLEM      283 

a  portion,  perhaps,  not  large,  by  absorption  into 
the  stronger  race,  the  residue  by  perishing  under 
conditions  of  life  unsuited  to  the  race.  The 
ratio  of  the  death-rate  of  the  race  is  already 
much  larger  than  that  of  the  white.  Consump 
tion  and  zymotic  diseases  are  already  making 
their  inroads.* 

Meantime  he  is  here,  and  something  must  be 
done  to  ameliorate  conditions. 

In  the  first  place,  let  us  have  all  the  light 
that  can  be  thrown  on  the  subject.  Form  an 
organization  to  consider  and  deal  with  the  sub 
ject,  not  in  the  spirit  of  narrowness  or  temper, 
but  in  a  spirit  of  philosophic  deliberation,  such 
as  becomes  a  great  people  discussing  a  great 
question  which  concerns  not  only  their  present 
but  their  future  position  among  the  nations. 
We  shall  then  get  at  the  right  of  the  matter. 

Let  us  do  our  utmost  to  eliminate  from  the 
question  the  complication  of  its  political  feat 
ures.  Get  politics  out  of  it,  and  the  problem 
will  be  more  than  half  solved.  Senator  Hamp 
ton  stated  not  long  ago  in  a  paper  contributed 
by  him  to  the  North  American  Review  that, 
to  get  the  Negro  out  of  politics,  he  would 
gladly  give  up  the  representation  based  on  his 
vote.  Could  anything  throw  a  stronger  light 

*  See  "Vital  Statistics  of  the  Negro."     Cited  supra. 


284  THE  NEGRO: 

on  the  apprehension  with  which  the  Negro  in 
politics  is  regarded  at  the  South? 

There  never  was  any  question  more  befogged 
with  demagogism  than  that  of  manhood  suf 
frage.  Let  us  apply  ourselves  to  the  securing 
some  more  reasonable  and  better  basis  for  the 
suffrage.  Let  us  establish  such  a  proper  quali 
fication  as  a  condition  precedent  to  the  posses 
sion  of  the  elective  franchise  as  shall  leave 
the  ballot  only  to  those  who  have  intelligence 
enough  to  use  it  as  an  instrument  to  secure  good 
government  rather  than  to  destroy  it.  In  taking 
this  step  we  have  to  plant  ourselves  on  a  broader 
principle  than  that  of  a  race  qualification.  It  is 
not  merely  the  Negro,  it  is  ignorance  and  venal 
ity  which  we  should  disfranchise.  If  we  can  dis 
franchise  these  we  need  not  fear  the  voter, 
whatever  the  color.  At  present  it  is  not  the 
Negro  who  is  disfranchised,  but  the  white.  We 
dare  not  divide. 

Having  limited  him  in  a  franchise  which  he 
has  not  in  a  generation  learned  to  use,  continue 
to  teach  him.  It  is  from  the  educated  Negro; 
that  is,  the  Negro  who  is  more  enlightened  than 
the  general  body  of  his  race,  that  order  must 
come.  The  ignorance,  venality,  and  supersti 
tion  of  the  average  Negro  are  dangerous  to  us. 
Education  will  divide  them  and  will  uplift 


THE  SOUTHERNER'S   PROBLEM      285 

them.  They  may  learn  in  time  that  if  they  wish 
to  rise  they  must  look  to  the  essential  qualities 
of  good  citizenship.  In  this  way  alone  can  the 
race  or  any  part  of  the  race  look  for  ultimate 
salvation. 

It  has  appeared  to  some  that  the  South  has 
not  done  its  full  duty  by  the  Negro.  Perfection 
is,  without  doubt,  a  standard  above  humanity; 
but,  at  least,  we  of  the  South  can  say  that  we 
have  done  much  for  him;  if  we  have  not  ad 
mitted  him  to  social  equality,  it  has  been  under 
an  instinct  stronger  than  reason,  and  in  obedi 
ence  to  a  law  higher  than  is  on  the  statute- 
books:  the  law  of  self-preservation.  Slavery, 
whatever  its  demerits,  was  not  in  its  time  the 
unmitigated  evil  it  is  fancied  to  have  been.  Its 
time  has  passed.  No  power  could  compel  the 
South  to  have  it  back.  But  to  the  Negro  it  was 
salvation.  It  found  him  a  savage  and  a  canni 
bal  and  in  two  hundred  years  gave  seven 
millions  of  his  race  a  civilization,  the  only  civ 
ilization  it  has  had  since  the  dawn  of  history. 

We  have  educated  him;  we  have  aided  him; 
we  have  sustained  him  in  all  right  directions. 
We  are  ready  to  continue  our  aid;  but  we  will 
not  be  dominated  by  him.  When  we  shall  be, 
it  is  our  settled  conviction  that  we  shall  deserve 
the  degradation  into  which  we  shall  have  sunk. 


CHAPTER  VIII 

OF   THE   SOLUTION   OF  THE   QUESTION 

THE   question   is   often   asked,    "  Now 
that  the  race  problem  in  the  South 
has  been  laid  down  and  discussed, 
what  solution  of  it  do  you  offer — what  have  you 
to  propose  to  ameliorate  the  conditions  which 
have  grown  out  of  that  problem?  " 

The  answer  is  simple.  None,  but  to  leave  it 
to  work  itself  out  along  the  lines  of  economic 
laws,  with  such  aid  as  may  be  rendered  by  an 
'  enlightened  public  spirit  and  a  broad-minded 
patriotism.  The  solution  proposed  so  glibly  by 
ignorant  doctrinaires  is  like  the  nostrum  of  the 
quack — good  only  for  fools.  The  single  solu 
tion  that  can  really  solve  it  is  that  which  time 
alone  can  disclose — the  natural  and  imperative 
resultant  of  the  forces  represented  in  the  two 
races.  The  racial  traits,  instincts,  and  forces 
which  have  governed  and  propelled  them  since 
the  dawn  of  history  will  in  all  human  probabil 
ity  still  control  and  propel  them  so  long  as  they 
exist  as  races. 

286 


THE  SOUTHERNER'S   PROBLEM      287 

One  fact  that  may  be  stated  with  some  degree 
of  assurance  is  that  there  is  no  one  universal 
Negro  problem  or  question  except  the  single 
one  constituted  by  the  existence  in  the  same 
country  of  two  populous  and  fecund  races,  es 
sentially  and,  perhaps,  radically  different  in 
their  history,  manners,  life,  and  instincts.  In 
fact,  the  problems  are  almost  as  numerous  and 
as  various  as  the  communities  where  the  two 
races  exist  side  by  side.  For  example,  one 
problem  exists  where  the  races  are  equally  edu 
cated  ;  another,  where  they  are  equally  ignorant ; 
a  third,  where  the  one  race  or  the  other  is  in 
numerical  superiority;  yet  another,  where  the 
members  of  either  race  are  of  one  class  or  an 
other.  All  of  these  things  have  to  be  fully  con 
sidered  in  determining  the  various  questions  that 
seem  to  be  inherent  in  the  subject,  and  any  posi 
tive  formulation  of  one  set  of  conditions  may 
readily  be  met  by  the  production  of  a  partially 
if  net  a  totally  different  set  of  conditions. 

Out  of  all  these  questions,  as  has  been  stated, 
but  one  essentially  common  to  the  whole  ob 
trudes  itself :  Whether  two  races,  like  the  white 
race  and  the  black,  with  such  histories  and  such 
characteristics  as  those  races  have,  can  continue 
permanently  to  live  together  under  conditions 


288  THE  NEGRO: 

similar  to  those  which  exist  in  the  United  States 
with  mutual  benefit  to  both? 

On  the  proper  answer  to  this  question  de 
pends  our  future,  both  as  a  people  and  as  a 
nation.  Next  to  the  question  of  Representative 
government,  this  would  appear  to  be  the  most 
vital  and  fundamental  question  that  exists 
within  the  limits  of  the  United  States  to-day. 
Hinging  upon  it  are  such  subordinate  questions 
as  representation,  personal  security,  freedom  of 
speech,  race  integrity,  national  strength  and 
permanency,  and,  possibly,  even  national  exist 
ence. 

v  The  Negro  race  has  already  doubled  three 
times  in  the  United  States  since  the  beginning 
of  the  last  century,  and,  unless  conditions 
change,  it  is  possible  that  before  the  end  of  the 
century  there  may  be  between  sixty  and  eighty 
millions  of  Negroes  in  this  country;  a  situation 
which  will  tax  all,  and  more  than  all,  of  the 
wisdom  and  constancy  of  the  white  race. 

In  fact,  the  situation  is  already  too  serious 
to  be  disposed  of  without  the  expenditure  of  all 
the  courage,  wisdom,  and  patriotism  of  the  en 
tire  white  race  in  America,  or,  at  least,  without 
more  than  they  have  yet  shown.  Hitherto,  the 
Negro  race  has  been  treated  on  the  one  side  as 


THE   SOUTHERNER'S    PROBLEM      289 

an  amiable  and  servile  class,  useful  under  regu 
lation  and  direction  to  furnish  the  labor  of  a 
great  section,  and  on  the  other  side  as  a  pliable 
class,  useful  under  certain  conditions  as  a 
weapon  to  punish  or  control  the  opposite  party. 
The  one  section  has  leaned  decidedly  to  keeping 
the  Negro  as  a  mere  laborer;  the  other  has 
leaned  with  firmness  to  using  him  for  its  own 
advantage.  But,  when  the  Negro  race  shall 
reach  the  numbers  suggested,  new  questions  will 
have  arisen.  The  question  then  will  be,  "  What 
shall  be  done  with  this  colored  population  of 
sixty  to  eighty  millions  of  souls?  " 

It  is  true  that  prognostications  of  increase  in 
a  population  often  fail,  but  judging  the  future 
by  the  past  and  taking  into  account  known 
racial  characteristics,  it  would  appear  that  the 
number  thus  prophesied  will  in  all  human  prob 
ability  exist  in  the  United  States  by  the  end  of 
the  century.  If  it  does  exist,  it  is  useless  for 
us  of  the  present  generation  to  blink  our  eyes  to 
the  gravity  of  the  situation. 

The  answer  at  present  would  appear  to  be 
alternative:  either  they  must  live  separately 
among  us — that  is,  a  people  within  a  people, 
separate  and  distinct — or  they  must  be  amalga 
mated  and  mixed  in  with  the  whites;  or,  they 


290  THE  NEGRO: 

must  be  removed  and  still  live  separate  and  dis 
tinct,  whether  in  some  country  beyond  the  con 
fines  of  the  United  States,  or  in  some  portion  of 
this  country  which  shall  be  given  up  to  them. 

It  is  not  believed  by  those  best  acquainted 
with  the  subject  that  the  solution  of  the  race 
question  will  ever  be  along  the  lines  of  amal 
gamation.  That  there  will  be  some  intermix 
ture  is  doubtless  true,  but  unless  all  observations 
are  erroneous,  while  the  percentage  of  mulat- 
toes  in  the  total  Negro  population  has  increased, 
this  increase  is  mainly  due  to  the  intermixture 
of  the  white  with  the  mulatto,  or  of  the  mu 
latto  with  the  pure  Negro,  and  the  intermixture 
between  the  pure  Negro  and  the  pure  white  is 
growing  less  all  the  time. 

"  The  general  conclusion,"  says  the  Director 
of  the  Department  of  Commerce  and  Labor  of 
the  Census  Bureau,  after  giving  tables  of  in 
creasing  per  cent,  of  mulattoes  to  total  Negro 
population  of  the  several  divisions  of  the  coun 
try,  "  seems  warranted  that  the  proportion  of 
mulattoes  to  total  Negroes  was  found  by  the 
enumerators  to  be  high  or  low,  according  as  the 
proportion  of  whites  to  Negroes  is  high  or  low. 
That  is,  it  appears  that  where  the  whites  are  in 
large  numbers  and  the  Negroes  in  small  num- 


THE  SOUTHERNER'S   PROBLEM      291 

bers,  the  proportion  of  mulattoes  to  Negroes 
is  likely  to  be  higher  than  where  the  whites  are 
in  small  numbers  and  the  Negroes  in  large 
numbers." 

Moreover,  the  percentage  of  mulattoes  in 
the  total  Negro  population  is  decidedly  greater 
in  cities  than  in  the  country. 

Although  the  reports  are  admittedly  incom 
plete,*  "  yet  even  so,"  says  the  Director,  "  it 
is  a  step  away  from  ignorance  to  have  the  ob 
servation  of  many  thousand  enumerators  at 
four  independent  inquiries  as  evidence  that  in 
the  United  States  between  one-ninth  and  one- 
sixth  of  the  Negroes  were  of  mixed  blood,  while 
in  Cuba  one-half  and  in  Porto  Rico  five-sixths 
have  been  so  classed  by  the  census." 

As  race  feeling  grows  the  intermixture  of 
the  two  races  will  necessarily  grow  less  and 
less. 

\  /The  solution  of  the  question,  then,  must  be 
along  one  of  the  other  lines  suggested.  That 
is,  the  Negro  race  must  either  remain  distinct 
and  keep  to  itself,  or  it  must  be  removed  to 
some  region,  whether  within  or  without  the 
confines  of  the  United  States,  where  it  will  be 
substantially  separated. 

*  Twelfth  U.  S.  Census  ;  Bulletin  8,  p.  17. 


292  THE  NEGRO: 

There  are  those  who  advocate  warmly  the 
attempt,  however  apparently  Herculean,  to  re 
move  the  Negro  race  without  further  delay. 
That  it  may  come  to  this  in  the  future  is  cer 
tainly  possible.  It  is,  however,  much  more 
likely  that  the  Negro  race  will  find  its  best 
security  in  remaining  in  this  country,  a  peo 
ple  within  a  people,  separate  and  distinct, 
but  acting  in  amity  with  the  stronger  race 
and  trying  to  minimize  rather  than  magnify 
contentions  upon  those  points  as  to  which  the 
stronger  race  is  most  determined.  Should  the 
time  ever  come  when,  for  any  reason  whatever, 
a  conflict  arises  between  the  two  races,  which 
would  appear  to  jeopard  the  supremacy  of  the 
stronger  race,  the  weaker  race  would  go  down, 
never  to  rise  again  on  this  continent. 

When  the  writer  first  began  to  study  the  con 
ditions  of  the  race  problem  they  appeared  to  be 
most  disheartening.  As,  however,  he  surveyed 
the  entire  field,  he  has  become  more  hopeful, 
and  certainly  more  firm  in  his  convictions  as  to  a 
few  principles. 

kOne  of  these  principles  is  the  absolute  and 
unchangeable  superiority  of  the  white  race — a 
superiority,  it  appears  to  him,  not  due  to  any 
mere  adventitious  circumstances,  such  as  superior 


THE  SOUTHERNER'S   PROBLEM      293 

educational  and  other  advantages  during  some 
centuries,  but  an  inherent  and  essential  superior 
ity,  based  on  superior  intellect,  virtue,  and  con 
stancy.  He  does  not  believe  that  the  Negro  is 
the  equal  of  the  white,  or  ever  could  be  the 
equal.  Race  superiority  is  founded  on  courage 
(or,  perhaps,  "  constancy  "  is  the  better  word), 
intellect,  and  the  domestic  virtues,  and  in  these 
the  white  is  the  superior  of  every  race. 

Another  principle  is  that  many,  if  not  most,  of 
the  difficulties  of  the  race  problem  since  the  war 
have  been  caused,  or  at  least  increased,  by  the 
ignorance  of  those  outside  of  the  South,  who, 
most  cocksure  of  their  position  where  they  were 
most  in  error,  have  tried  to  force  a  solution  on 
lines  contrary  to  natural  and  unchangeable  laws. 
The  selfish  politician  and  the  cocksure  theorist 
have  equally  contrived  to  create  problems  where 
none  might  have  been  but  for  their  bigotry  and 
their  folly. 

/'The  first  step  toward  the  solution  of  the 
problem  would  be  taken  if  the  Negro  were  sim 
ply  let  alone  and  left  to  his  own  resources, 
with  such  help  as  equity  or  philanthropy  might 
contribute — in  other  words,  if  the  whites  and 
blacks  were  left  to  settle  their  difficulties  and 
troubles  in  the  various  States  and  sections  pre- 


294  THE  NEGRO: 

cisely  as  they  would  be  left  were  all  whites  or 
all  blacks. 

Among  the  errors  made  in  the  early  years 
none  was  more  fatal  than  the  inculcation  in  the 
mind  of  the  Negro  that  he  was  the  ward  of 
the  nation,  and,  as  such,  would  be  sustained. 
He  was  not  sustained  in  the  end  and  he  never 
can  be;  but  he  learned  just  enough  from  the 
experience  of  that  time  to  know  that  the  Gov 
ernment  was  powerful  enough  to  trample  down 
the  Southern  whites.  The  memory  of  that  time 
has  been  an  ignis  fatuus  to  delude  him  ever 
since.  And  the  continual  harping  on  this  theme 
by  the  section  of  the  Northern  press  and  the 
politicians,  who  forget  that  this  is  no  longer  the 
decade  following  the  war,  is  just  sufficient  to 
mislead  them. 

At  the  end  the  Negroes  must  rise  by  their 
own  exertions  and  their  own  approach  to  the 
standards  by  which  peoples  rise.  And  the  chief 
aid  in  this  is  the  sympathy  of  those  among 
whom  they  live. 

Left  alone,  the  whites  and  the  blacks  of  the 
South  would  settle  their  difficulties  along  the 
lines  of  substantial  justice  and  substantial  equity. 

Yet  another  principle  is  that  the  final  settle 
ment  must  be  one  in  which  the  great  body  of 


THE  SOUTHERNER'S   PROBLEM      295 

that  portion  of  the  white  race  who  know  the 
Negroes  best  shall  acquiesce.  No  other  will 
ever  be  final. 

The  "  MacVeagh  Commission/1  which  vis 
ited  Louisiana  in  1876,  reported  that  the  Negro 
party  had  a  great  majority  in  the  State,  had  had 
possession  of  every  branch  of  the  State  Govern 
ment,  and  had  been  sustained  by  the  United 
States  Government,  and  yet  the  whites  had  de 
feated  and  ousted  them.  Were  the  same  con 
ditions  to  exist  to-day  the  same  results  would 
occur.  This  country  is  as  "  fatally  reserved 
for  "  the  Anglo-Saxon  race  as  it  was  when  the 
Virginia  Adventurers  declared  it  to  be  so  in 
their  first  report  to  Elizabeth. 

And,  lastly,  I  am  satisfied  that  the  final 
settlement  must  be  by  the  way  of  elevating  both 
races. 

There  is  much  truth  in  the  saying  that  unless 
the  whites  lift  the  Negroes  up,  the  Negroes  will 
drag  them  down,  though  it  is  not  true  in  the  full 
sense  in  which  it  was  intended.  It  is  not  true 
to  the  extent  that  the  white  must  lift  the  Negro 
up  to  his  own  level ;  it  is  true  to  the  extent  that 
he  must  not  leave  him  debased — at  least,  must 
not  leave  him  here  debased.  If  he  does,  then 
the  Negro  will  inevitably  hold  him,  if  not  drag 


296  THE  NEGRO: 

him  down.  No  country  in  the  present  state  of 
the  world's  progress  can  long  maintain  itself 
in  the  front  rank,  and  no  people  can  long  main 
tain  themselves  at  the  top  of  the  list  of  peoples 
if  they  have  to  carry  perpetually  the  burden  of 
a  vast  and  densely  ignorant  population,  and 
where  that  population  belongs  to  another  race, 
the  argument  must  be  all  the  stronger.  Cer 
tainly,  no  section  can,  under  such  a  burden, 
keep  pace  with. a  section  which  has  no  such  bur 
den.  Whatever  the  case  may  have  been  in  the 
past,  the  time  has  gone  by,  possibly  forever, 
when  the  ignorance  of  the  working-class  was  an 
asset.  Nations  and  peoples  and,  much  more, 
sections  of  peoples,  are  now  strong  and  prosper 
ous  almost  in  direct  ratio  to  their  knowledge 
and  enlightenment. 

It  can  readily  be  demonstrated  by  unques 
tioned  proof  that  the  wealth  and  strength  of 
modern  nations  are  in  almost  exact  proportion 
to  the  education  of  the  population.  It  is  not, 
however,  necessary  for  the  present  argument 
to  go  outside  of  America.  Viewing  the  matter 
economically,  the  Negro  race,  like  every  other 
race,  must  be  of  far  more  value  to  the  country 
in  which  it  is  placed,  if  the  Negro  is  properly 
educated,  elevated,  and  trained,  than  if  he  is 


THE   SOUTHERNER'S   PROBLEM      297 

allowed  to  remain  in  ignorance  and  degrada 
tion.  He  is  a  greater  peril  to  the  community  in 
which  he  lives  if  he  remains  in  ignorance  and 
degradation  than  if  he  is  enlightened.  If  the 
South  expects  ever  to  compete  with  the  North, 
she  must  educate  and  train  her  population,  and, 
in  my  judgment,  not  merely  her  white  popula 
tion,  but  her  entire  population. 

I  know  well  all  the  arguments  against  educat 
ing  the  Negroes.  I  know  the  struggle  that  the 
South  made  in  the  days  of  her  poverty  to  edu 
cate  that  race,  even  at  the  expense  of  her  white 
children;  expending  upon  them,  out  of  taxes 
levied  by  the  whites  on  the  property  of  the 
whites,  over  $110,000,000,  though  over  a  fifth 
of  the  whites  were  left  in  ignorance.*  I  know 
the  disappointment  from  which  she  has  suffered. 
What  is  charged  as  to  the  educated  Negro's 
being  just  educated  enough  to  make  him  worth 
less  as  a  laborer  and  leave  him  useless  for  any 
thing  else  has  in  it  often  too  much  truth.  I  am 
well  aware  that  often  the  young  Negro  thinks 
his  so-called  education  gives  him  a  license  to 
be  insolent,  and  that  not  rarely  it  is  but  an  aid 
to  his  viciousness.  But,  for  all  this,  the  eco 
nomic  laws  are  as  invariable  and  as  certain  in 
their  operation  as  any  other  laws  of  nature. 
*  See  Appendix. 


298  THE  NEGRO: 

In  the  first  place,  it  seems  to  me  that  our 
plain  duty  is  to  do  the  best  we  can  to  act  with 
justice  and  a  broad  charity  and  leave  the  con 
sequences  to  God. 

But  there  are  other  reasons  for  our  contin 
uing  in  well-doing.  And  not  for  sentimental 
reasons  and  not  for  political  reasons,  but  for 
reasons  on  which  depend  the  future  of  the 
South  and  of  the  Southern  people;  for  reasons 
as  certain  as  that  light  is  safer  than  darkness, 
and  that  intelligence  is  better  than  stupidity,  or 
even  mere  craftiness,  the  South  must  educate 
all  her  population.  She  must  do  this,  or  she 
must  fall  behind  the  rest  of  the  country.  She 
has  no  option  in  this  matter.  She  has  the  pop 
ulation  and  they  are  increasing.  The  matter 
seems  to  me  to  be  not  susceptible  of  question 
on  sound  economic  grounds.  We  must  educate 
them.  It  is  not  a  question  of  choice,  but  of 
necessity. 

We  have  the  Negro  here  among  us  to  the 
number  of  ten  millions  and  increasing  at  a  rate 
of  about  twenty-five  per  cent,  every  ten  years. 
They  are  here;  what  must  we  do  with  them? 
One  of  three  courses  must  be  taken :  We  must 
either  debase  them,  keep  them  stationary,  or 
improve  them. 


THE  SOUTHERNER'S   PROBLEM      299 

Everyone  will  discard  the  first  plan. 

No  one  can  make  the  second  feasible.  A 
race,  like  a  class,  is  always  in  a  state  of  change, 
at  least,  under  conditions  like  those  in  America. 

Then,  we  must  adopt  the  third  course. 

At  this  point,  the  question  arises :  How  shall 
they  be  improved  ?  One  element  says,  Improve 
them,  but  only  as  laborers,  for  which  alone  they 
are  fitted;  another,  with  a  larger  charity,  says, 
Enlarge  this  and  give  them  a  chance  to  become 
good  mechanics,  as  they  have  shown  themselves 
capable  of  improvement  in  the  industrial  field; 
a  third  class  goes  further  yet,  and  says,  Give 
them  a  yet  further  chance — a  chance  to  develop 
themselves;  enlighten  them  and  teach  them  the 
duties  of  citizenship  and  they  will  become  meas 
urably  good  citizens.  Yet  another  says,  Give 
him  the  opportunity  and  push  him  till  he 
is  stuffed  full  of  the  ideas  and  the  learning  that 
have  made  the  white  race  what  it  is. 

The  last  of  these  theories  appears  to  the  wri 
ter  as  unsound  as  the  first,  which  is  certainly  un 
sound.  Keep  them  ignorant,  and  the  clever  and 
hte  enterprising  will  go  off  and  leave  to  the 
South  the  dull,  the  stupid,  and  the  degraded. 

The  question  is  no  longer  a  choice  between 
the  old-time  Negro  and  the  "  new  issue,"  but 


300  THE  NEGRO: 

between  the  u  new  issue,"  made  into  a  fairly 
good  laborer  and  a  fairly  enlightened  citizen^ 
who  in  time  will  learn  his  proper  place,  what 
ever  it  may  be,  or  the  "  new  issue,"  dull,  igno 
rant,  brutish,  liable  to  be  worked  on  by  the 
most  crafty  of  those  who  would  use  him;  a 
noisome,  human  hot-bed,  in  which  every  form 
of  viciousness  will  germinate. 

Perhaps,  the  best  argument  ever  advanced 
for  general  suffrage  was  that  of  George  Mason 
in  the  Constitutional  Convention :  that  through  a 
general  suffrage  it  may  be  known  what  is  under 
neath.  The  Negroes  will  always  have  their 
leaders,  and  it  is  better  to  have  enlightened  lead 
ers  than  ignorant. 

Nothing  could  be  more  disheartening  than 
the  poor  return  that  the  Southerner  has  re 
ceived  for  his  outlay  and  patience.  Often, 
worthlessness  and  insolence  on  the  part  of  the 
beneficiaries  of  his  bounty,  and  misunderstand 
ing  and  abuse  on  the  part  of  Pharisaical  critics, 
have  been  his  reward.  But,  for  all  this,  let  us 
keep  on  doing  what  we  believe  to  be  right.  We 
have  in  the  past  had  experience  of  the  Negro 
fairly  well  trained  and  in  amity  with  the  white, 
where  he  recognized  the  latter's  superiority. 
We  have  the  high  authority  of  one  of  the  lead- 


THE  SOUTHERNER'S   PROBLEM      301 

ing  Negro  teachers  and  leaders,  that  the  Ne 
gro  yearns  toward  the  white.  This  is  strongly 
corroborated  by  the  well-known  fact  that  wher 
ever  the  Negroes  and  the  Southern  whites  are 
let  alone,  and  are  not  affected  by  outside  influ 
ences,  they,  for  the  most  part,  live  in  harmony. 
If  we  keep  on  and  manage  the  race  question 
with  firmness  and  with  equity,  we  shall  yet  show 
the  Negro  that  his  true  interest  lies  in  maintain 
ing  amity  with  the  Southern  white.  This  we 
can  never  do  if  we  take  ground  against  educat 
ing  him  and  leave  the  Northern  white  to  advo 
cate  uplifting  him.  In  such  case,  the  North 
would  always  have  an  argument,  and  the  Ne 
gro  always  proof,  that  the  Northerner  is  his 
friend  and  the  Southerner  not. 

The  alleged  danger  of  the  educated  Negro 
becoming  a  greater  menace  to  the  white  than 
the  uneducated  is  a  bugaboo  which  will  not 
stand  the  test  of  light.  That  this  might  be 
true  if  the  white  is  allowed  to  remain  unedu 
cated,  may  readily  be  admitted.  The  answer, 
however,  to  the  argument,  if  it  has  any  merit 
whatever,  is  that  we  must  give  a  sound  and  not 
a  spurious  education  and  simply  educate  our 
whites  better.  If  there  were  not  a  Negro  on 
the  continent  of  America,  we  shall  have  to  do 


302  THE  NEGRO: 

this  anyhow,  unless  we  are  willing  to  have  the 
Southern  people  fall  ever  further  and  further 
behind  the  people  of  the  North  and  West.* 

Education  is  now  the  talisman — the  desire 
and  aim  of  all  the  vast  influx  of  immigrants  who 
come  within  our  gates.  The  children  of  the 
foreign-born  population  of  the  country  are,  by 
the  last  census,  less  illiterate,  even  in  the  North, 
than  those  of  the  native-born.  Unless  we  fur 
nish  these  people  good  schools,  we  can  never 
hope  to  get  a  good  class  of  immigrants  to  come 
to  us.  Without  good  schools,  if  we  get  any,  it 
will  be  only  the  poorest  class.  And  nothing 
would  help  us  more  in  the  South  than  to  get  in 
the  best  class. 

Now,  as  to  the  form  of  education  which  will 
be  of  most  value  to  the  Negroes  and  of  most 
value  to  the  South — for  the  two,  instead  of 
being  opposed  to  each  other,  as,  according  to 
our  self-righteous  critics,  we  appear  to  believe, 
are  bound  up  in  one. 

Unhappily,  the  system  of  education  hereto 
fore  pursued  with  the  Negroes  has  been  so  fu 
tile  in  its  results  that  a  considerable  proportion 
of  Southerners,  knowing  the  facts  against  all 
*  See  Appendix. 


THE  SOUTHERNER'S   PROBLEM      303 

the  assertion  of  Negro  leaders,  and  all  the 
clamor  of  those  outside  the  South  who  are  igno 
rant  of  the  facts,  believe  sincerely  that  the  edu 
cated  are  more  worthless  and  more  dangerous 
to  the  welfare  and  peace  of  the  community  in 
which  they  live  than  the  uneducated. 

That  is,  it  is  the  sincere  belief  of  a  consid 
erable  number  of  enlightened  and  thoughtful 
whites,  perfectly  conversant  with  the  situation, 
that  the  earnest  effort  of  the  South  to  educate 
the  Negroes,  extending  through  a  generation, 
at  an  expense  of  over  $110,000,000,  contrib 
uted  out  of  the  property  of  the  Southern  whites, 
has  been  a  complete  failure  in  that  the  benefi 
ciaries  of  this  effort  are  not  as  good  workers, 
or  as  good  citizens,  as  the  generation  which  pre 
ceded  them,  and  use  the  education  so  given 
them,  where  they  use  it  at  all,  in  ways  which 
are  not  beneficial  to  themselves  and  are  injurious 
to  the  whites. 

This  is  a  condition  sufficiently  grave  to  re- 
'quire  thoughtful  consideration,  and  it  must  be 
met  by  argument  rather  than  by  vilification,  or 
even  by  mere  dogmatism. 

It  is,  undoubtedly,  true  that  the  apparent  re 
sult  of  the  effort  to  educate  the  Negro  has  been 
disappointing.  There  are  a  few  thousand  pro- 


304  THE  NEGRO: 

fessional  men,  a  considerable  number  of  col 
lege  or  high  school  graduates,  but,  for  the 
greater  part,  there  is  discernible  little  apparent 
breadth  of  view,  no  growth  in  ability,  or  ten 
dency  to  consider  great  questions  reasonably. 
There  is,  indeed,  rather  a  tendency  to  racial 
solidarity  in  opposition  to  the  whites  on  all  ques 
tions  whatsoever;  continued  failure  to  distin 
guish  soundly  between  outward  gifts  and  char 
acter;  a  general  inclination  to  deny  crime  and 
side  with  criminals  against  the  whites,  no  matter 
how  flagrant  the  crime  may  be.  There  is,  more 
over,  a  not  rare  belief  among  the  whites  that 
the  preachers  and  leaders  contribute  to  increase 
these  tendencies  and  teach  hostility  rather  than 
try  to  uplift  the  race  morally.  This  view  is 
held  sincerely  by  a  considerable  section  of  the 
well-informed  whites  of  the  South. 

All  this  is  very  disappointing,  and  yet  the 
only  lamp  by  which  we  can  guide  our  way  safely 
is  the  light  of  experience.  Enlightenment  and 
religion  are  the  two  great  powers  that  have 
raised  races  and  peoples.  Since  the  dawn  of 
history,  Education  and  Christianity  have  raised 
the  Western  nations,  among  them  the  Anglo- 
Saxon  race.  With  all  the  faults  men  show  in 
practice,  these  two  contain  the  vital  principles. 


THE   SOUTHERNER'S   PROBLEM      305 

They  are  founded  on  those  precepts,  by  which 
alone  nations  rise  and  civilization  advances — 
knowledge,  morality,  and  duty. 

Whatever  disappointment,  then,  there  may 
be,  this  much  at  least  may  be  laid  down :  There 
are  only  two  ways  to  solve  the  Negro  problem 
in  the  South.  One  is  to  remove  him ;  the  other 
is  to  elevate  him.  The  former  is  apparently  out 
of  the  question.  The  only  method,  then,  is  to 
improve  him. 

In  suggesting  the  method  of  education  that 
will  prove  of  greatest  service,  it  is  easier  to 
criticise  than  to  reform.  Hitherto,  the  idea  has 
been  to  educate  the  Negro  race  just  as  the  white 
race  is  educated;  that  is,  to  give  him  book  edu 
cation  and  "  turn  him  loose."  There  was,  it 
is  true,  no  field  except  the  curious  politics  of 
the  time  in  which  the  Negro  could  exercise  his 
powers,  based  on  such  an  education.  The  whites 
did  not  want  this ;  the  Negroes  could  not  use  it ; 
but  this  made  no  difference  with  those  who  had 
the  matter  in  charge.  Education  was  under 
stood  to  be  ability  to  show  book-learning.  With 
this  meagre  equipment,  the  "  educated  Negro  " 
rushed  into  politics,  or  into  the  pulpit,  which 
mainly  was  but  another  name  for  the  same 
thing.  Sentiment,  however,  demanded  that  the 


306  THE  NEGRO: 

Negro  should  be  placed  on  an  equality  with  the 
whites,  and  other  conditions  were  left  out  of 
account,  with  disheartening  results. 

It  is  axiomatic  to  say  that  the  education  given 
to  the  Negro  should  be  of  the  kind  which  will 
benefit  him  most.  A  few  plain  principles  may 
be  stated:  He  should  be  taught  that  education 
consists  of  something  more  than  a  mere  ability 
to  read  and  write  and  speak;  that  education 
includes  moral  elevation  as  well  as  intellectual 
development;  that  religion  includes  morality 
and  is  more  than  emotional  excitement.  He 
should  be  taught  that  one  of  the  strongest  ele 
ments  in  racial  development  is  purity  of  family 
life;  he  should  be  taught  that  the  duties  of 
citizenship  are  much  more  than  the  ability  to 
cast  a  ballot,  or  even  to  hold  an  office;  that  ele 
vation  to  superiority  among  the  people  of  his 
own  race  Is  of  far  greater  moment  to  him  at 
this  time  than  external  equality  with  another 
race,  and  that  true  superiority  is  founded  on 
character.  He  should  be  taught  to  become  self- 
sustaining,  self-reliant,  and  self-respecting.  A 
people,  like  a  class,  to  advance  must  either  be 
strong  enough  to  make  its  way  against  all  hos 
tility,  or  must  secure  the  friendship  of  others, 
particularly  of  those  nearest  it.  If  the  Negro 


THE   SOUTHERNER'S   PROBLEM      307 

race  in  the  South  proposes,  and  is  powerful 
enough  to  overcome  the  white  race,  let  it  try  this 
method — it  will  soon  find  out  its  error;  if  not, 
it  must  secure  the  friendship  of  that  race.  Ow 
ing  to  conditions,  the  friendship  and  the  sym 
pathy  of  the  Southern  section  of  that  race  are 
almost  as  much  more  important  to  the  Negro 
race  than  is  that  of  the  North,  as  the  friendship 
of  the  latter  is  more  important  than  that  of  the 
yet  more  distant  Canadian  section  of  the  white 
race. 

The  best  way — perhaps  the  only  way — for 
the  Negro  race  to  progress  steadily  is  to  secure 
the  sympathy  and  aid  of  the  Southern  whites. 
It  will  never  do  this  until  the  race  solidarity  of 
the  Negroes  is  broken  and  the  Negroes  divide 
on  the  same  grounds  on  which  the  whites  divide ; 
until  they  unite  with  the  whites  and  act  with 
them  on  the  questions  which  concern  the  good 
of  the  section  in  which  they  both  have  their 
most  vital  interests. 

The  urgent  need  is  for  the  Negroes  to  divide 
up  into  classes,  with  character  and  right  conduct 
as  the  standard  for  elevation.  When  they  make 
distinctions  themselves,  others  will  recognize 
their  distinctions. 

As  a  result  of  the  above  principles,  it  would 


308  THE  NEGRO: 

appear,  first,  that  elementary  education  should 
be  universal.  Even  the  commonest  laborer, 
speaking  in  general  terms,  profits  by  it. 

This  education  should  be  of  the  kind  best 
adapted  to  the  great  body  of  those  for  whom 
it  is  provided.  The  wisest  and  most  conserva 
tive  teacher  of  the  Negro  race,  following  the 
precepts  of  his  own  great  teacher,  General 
Armstrong,  has  attained  his  distinction  largely 
by  the  success  he  has  achieved  in  applying  meth 
ods  of  industrial,  rather  than  of  mere  literary 
education.  In  this  view  he  is  bitterly  opposed 
by  many,  perhaps  by  most,  of  the  "  educated 
Negroes,"  who  are  fond  of  declaring  that  they 
act  upon  principle;  that  the  object  of  education 
is  to  make  men,  not  to  make  potatoes,  or  even 
to  make  carpenters;  little  realizing  that  "  men," 
in  the  sense  in  which  the  term  is,  or  should  be 
used,  are  no  more  made  by  the  superficial  and 
counterfeit  education  which  most  of  their  so- 
called  college  graduates  display,  than  are  vege 
tables  or  mechanics.  It  has  taken  a  generation 
and  something  like  $150,000,000,  including  the 
entire  input  from  public  and  private  sources,  to 
produce  one  Booker  T.  Washington,  and — to 
select  from  the  other  school — one  Professor 
Du  Bois,  though  I  take  pleasure  in  stating  my 


THE   SOUTHERNER'S   PROBLEM      309 

belief  that  there  are  a  considerable  and  possibly 
an  increasing  number  of  modest,  unassuming, 
faithful,  and  devoted  teachers  and  representa 
tives  of  both  schools  not  so  distinguished,  but, 
perhaps,  not  less  worthy  than  these.  But,  the 
question  arises,  or  should  arise,  How  many  thou 
sands  are  there  who,  in  the  making  of  these,  have 
been  ruined  for  the  life  for  which  they  were 
fitted? 

It  might  seem  that  the  true  principle  should 
be  elementary  education  for  all,  including  in 
the  term  "  industrial  education,"  and  special, 
that  is,  higher  education  of  a  proper  kind  for 
the  special  individuals  who  may  give  proof  of 
their  fitness  to  receive  and  profit  by  it. 

A  college  education  should  be  the  final  re 
ward  and  prize  only  of  those  who  have  proven 
themselves  capable  of  appreciating  it  and  who 
give  promise  of  being  able  to  use  it  for  the 
public  good. 

To  ignore  rules  founded  on  such  plain  com 
mon  sense  is  worse  than  folly.  The  money  so 
expended  is  not  merely  thrown  away ;  this  might 
be  tolerated;  it  is  an  actual  and  positive  injury. 
It  unfits  the  recipient  for  the  work  for  which 
alone  in  any  case  he  might  be  fit,  and  gives  him 
in  exchange  only  a  bauble  to  amuse  himself  with, 


3io  THE  NEGRO: 

or  a  weapon  with  which  to  injure  himself  and 
others. 

Finally,  and  as  the  only  sound  foundation 
for  the  whole  system  of  education,  the  Negro 
must  be  taught  the  great  elementary  truths  of 
morality  and  duty.  Until  he  is  so  established 
in  these  that  he  claims  to  be  on  this  ground 
the  equal  of  the  white,  he  can  never  be  his  equal 
on  any  other  ground.  When  he  is  the  equal  of 
the  white,  it  will  make  itself  known.  Until 
then,  he  is  fighting  not  the  white  race,  but  a 
law  of  nature,  universal  and  inexorable — that 
races  rise  or  fall  according  to  their  character. 


APPENDIX 

SOUTHERN    TAXATION    AND    EDUCATION. 

AS  small  as  may  appear  to  be  the  amount 
expended  by  the  South  on  public  edu 
cation,    those  who    have   not  known 
conditions  there  can  have  little  idea  as  to  the 
strain  upon  her  resources  which  this  amount  has 
caused.     In  "The  Present  South,"  pp.  42>  43 
et  seq.,  Edgar  Gardner  Murphy  says  : 

"The  figures  of  our  national  census  show  that 
from  1860  to  1870  there  was  a  fall  of  $2,100,- 
000,000  in  the  assessed  value  of  Southern 
property  and  that  the  period  of  Reconstruction 
added,  in  the  years  from  1870  to  1880,  another 
$67,000,000  to  the  loss. 

"In  1860  the  assessed  value  of  property  in 
Massachusetts  was  $777,000,000,  as  contrasted 
with  $5,200,000,000  for  the  whole  South. 

"  But  at  the  close  of  the  war  period  Massa 
chusetts  had,  in  1 870,  $1,590,000,000  in  taxable 
property,  as  contrasted  with  but  $3,000,000,000 
for  the  whole  South. 

"It  is  interesting  to  note  that  in  1890  there 
was  'expended  for  public  schools  on  each  $100 
of  true  valuation  of  all  real  and  personal  prop- 

311 


312  APPENDIX 

erty'  22.3  cents  in  Arkansas  and  24.4  cents  in 
Mississippi,  as  compared  with  20.5  cents  in 
New  York  and  20.9  in  Pennsylvania.  See  Re 
port  of  the  U.  S.  Commissioner  of  Education, 
1902,  Vol.  I.  p.  xci." 

ILLITERACY    IN    THE    SOUTH. 

The  following  is  taken  from  Publication  8, 
Twelfth  United  States  Census : 

"The  illiteracy  of  the  native  white  population 
of  the  Southern  States  ranges  from  8.6  per  cent, 
in  Florida,  8  per  cent,  in  Mississippi,  and  6.1 
per  cent,  in  Texas,  to  17.3  per  cent,  in  Louisi 
ana,  and  19.5  per  cent,  in  North  Carolina,  as 
contrasted  with  0.8  per  cent,  in  Nebraska,  1.3 
per  cent,  in  Kansas,  2.1  per  cent,  in  Illinois, 
1.2  per  cent,  in  New  York,  and  0.8  per  cent,  in 
Massachusetts.  A  far  juster  comparison,  how 
ever,  is  that  which  indicates  the  contrast,  not 
between  the  South  and  the  rest  of  the  country  in 
1900,  but  between  the  South  of  1880  and  the 
South  of  to-day. 

TABLE     SHOWING     THE      RANK      OF      EACH 

STATE   IN    PERCENTAGE  OF  ILLITERACY 

OF  THE  NATIVE  WHITE  POPULATION 

TEN  YEARS  OF  AGE  AND   OVER: 

1900. 

1  Washington 0.5   I      3      Montana 0.6 

2  South  Dakota 0.6        4     Nevada 0.6 


APPENDIX 


5 

Wyoming  

0.7 

7,8 

6 

7 

Massachusetts  .... 
Minnesota    

0.8 
0.8 

29 

7Q 

8 

Nebraska  . 

0.8 

1  I 

9 

10 

Connecticut  
Oregon 

0.8 
0.8 

32 
33 

1  1 

Utah 

0.8 

34- 

12 
'3 

Dist.  of  Columbia 
North  Dakota.  .  .  . 
Idaho. 

0.8 
0.9 

O.Q 

3? 
36 

37 

I  C 

California 

.O 

18 

16 

New  York  

.2 

j" 
30 

17 

Iowa  

.2 

4-O 

18 

Wisconsin 

.  T. 

4-1 

10 

Kansas  

.  1 

42 

20 

21 

New  Hampshire  .  . 

•5 

.7 

43 

4-4- 

22 

New  Jersey 

.7 

4.C 

23 
24. 

Rhode  Island  
Illinois  

.8 

2.  I 

46 

4-7 

25 

?6 

Pennsylvania  .... 
Ohio 

2-3 
2.4. 

48 
4.Q 

27 

Maine  .  . 

**T 

2.4- 

T-y 

SO 

5 

2.7 


Oklahoma 

Colorado 

Vermont 2.9 

Indiana 3.6 

Maryland 4.  i 

Missouri 4.8 

Delaware 5.6 

Texas 6.  i 

Arizona 6.2 

Mississippi 8.0 

Florida 8.6 

West  Virginia.  .  . .  10.0 

Virginia 1 1 .  i 

Arkansas 1 1 . 6 

Georgia 11.9 

Kentucky 12.8 

South  Carolina .  .  .13.6 
Indian  Territory.  .14.0 

Tennessee 14.2 

Alabama 14.8 

Louisiana 17.3 

North  Carolina. .  .  19.5 
New  Mexico. . .  .29.4 


POPULATION    AT    LEAST     TEN     YEARS     OF     AGE     AND 

NUMBER    AND    PER   CENT.   ILLITERATE   FOR   THE 

NEGRO  AND  WHITE  RACES:  1900  AND  1890. 


RACE. 

POPULATION   AT   LEAST   TEN   YEARS   OF  AGE. 

IQOO 

1890 

Number  Illiterate. 

Per  Cent. 
Illiterate. 

1900 

1890 

1900 

1890 

Continental  U.  S.  : 
Negro  population. 
White  population. 

6,415,581 
51,250,918 

5,328,972 
41,931,074 

2,853,194 
3,200,746 

3,042,668 
3.212,574 

44-5 

6.2 

57-i 
7-7 

APPENDIX 


POPULATION  AT  LEAST  TEN  YEARS  OF  AGE  AND  NUMBER 

AND   PER  CENT.  ILLITERATE   FOR  THE  NEGRO  AND 

WHITE  RACES  IN  THE  SOUTH:  1900  AND  1890. 


POPULATION   AT   LEAST  TEN   YEARS   OF   AGE. 

RACE. 

Number  Illiterate. 

Per  Cent. 
Illiterate. 

1900 

1890 

1900 

1890 

1900 

1890 

South  Atlantic  and 

South   Central   di 

visions  : 

Negro  population  . 
White  population. 

5,664,975 

12,020,539 

4>75I»763 
9,456,368 

2,717,606 
1,401,273 

2,883,216 
1,412,983 

48.0 
11.7 

60.7 
14.9 

"  There  are  352  counties  in  the  United  States 
in  which  one-half  the  Negro  population  at  least 
10  years  of  age  was  illiterate  in  1900.  With 
the  exception  of  New  Madrid  County,  Mo.,  all 
these  counties  are  in  the  South. 

"  If  the  educational  facilities  of  the  country 
should  remain  up  to  their  present  standards, 
but  not  improve,  and  should  impart  the  ele 
ments  of  education  to  as  large  a  proportion  of 
the  rising  generation  as  they  have  done  to  those 
between  10  and  14  years  in  1900,  then,  at  the 
end  of  the  generation,  illiteracy  among  the  Ne 
groes  in  the  country  will  have  sunk  from  44.5 
to  30.1  per  cent.;  that  is,  nearly  one-third  of  it 
will  have  disappeared.  At  the  same  time,  illit 
eracy  among  the  whites  in  the  country  will  have 
sunk,  immigration  aside,  from  6.2  to  3.5  per 


APPENDIX  315 

cent. ;  that  is,  about  three-sevenths  of  the  illiter 
acy  among  the  whites  will  have  disappeared. 

"  At  the  present  time,  nearly  one-half  of  the 
Negroes  in  the  Southern  States  are  unable  to 
write,  but  if  educational  facilities  for  that  race 
remain  about  as  they  are  at  present  for  another 
generation,  and  be  availed  of  to  the  same  extent, 
the  proportion  would  sink  to  one-third.  The 
illiteracy  of  the  Negro  at  the  present  time  is 
about  four  times  that  of  the  white  in  both  the 
North  and  the  South ;  in  the  North  a  little  less, 
in  the  South  a  little  more." 

COST    OF    VIRGINIA    PUBLIC    SCHOOLS. 

Total  amount   of  State    and    Local  Taxes 

expended  in  Virginia  on  Public  Schools 

from  1870-71  to  1890-91 — 20  years....  $22,759,249.38 
Amount  received  from  Peabody  Fund....  296,134.00 

Private  contributions 324,926.59 

Total $23,380,309.97 

Cost  of  Negro  education  in  Public  Schools, 

including  total  Current  Expenses $4,792,290.06 

Amounts  appropriated  by  the  State  to 
Hampton  and  Virginia  Normal  Insti 
tutes 471,708.72 

Cost  of  permanent  improvements,  sites, 

buildings,  etc.,  for  Colored  Schools..  588,223.05 

Total  cost  of  Colored  Public  Schools  and 

Normal  Institutes  for  20  years.  .  .  .      $5,852,222.57 
Total  cost  of  White  Schools  for  same  period      17,528,087.60 

Total  of  all  Public  Schools  same  period   $23,380,310.17 


316  THE  NEGRO: 

Percentage  of  whole  fund  expended  on  White  Schools  $75.00 
Percentage   of  whole    fund     expended    on    Colored 

Schools 25.00 


$100.00 
Actual  statistics  for  1891  show  the  following  facts: 

Per  cent. 
Total  taxes.         of  whole. 

White $1,769,576.06  91.7 

Colored 163,175.67  8.3 

Total fa,959>75l-73         *oo.o 

The  U.  S.  Census  for  1890  shows  the  population  of  Vir 
ginia  to  be  as  follows : 

Whites 1,015,123—    61.3% 

Colored 640,857  =    38.7% 


Total 1 ,655,980  =  100.0% 

Thus  showing  that  while  the  Negroes  comprise  nearly  four- 
tenths  of  the  population,  they  furnish  less  than  one-tenth 
of  the  amount  expended  on  public  schools. 
The  number  of  Public  Schools  for  the  year  1898-90  was 

White 5,358 

Colored 2,153 


The  total  cost  of  Public  Schools  for  the  year 

1889-90  was $1,604,508.80 

The  cost  of  Negro  Schools  for  the  same  year 

was  about 420,000.00 

Now,  if  we  use  the  percentages  on  preceding  pages  and 
allow  all  the  taxes  paid  by  Negroes  (on  both  personal  and  real 
property)  to  go  into  the  School  Fund,  we  will  see  that  there 
was  a  deficit  of  $256,824.33  to  be  made  up  from  the  taxes  paid 
by  white  people,  or,  in  other  words,  the  total  amount  of  taxes 
on  personal  and  real  property  paid  by  the  Negroes  will  cover 
less  than  half  the  expense  of  their  schools  alone. 


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